Three Canyon Ridge High School film students earned recognition in the University of Idaho’s Fall48-hour film challenge, taking home the award for Best Original Score in a high school production.
The annual competition, hosted by the University of Idaho’s film program and streamed on YouTube, challenges teams to write, direct, edit, and submit a short film in just 48 hours. This year’s team, being CRHS seniors, Draven Chambers, Colby Wilcox, and Jarahmya Swensen, entered independently without direct assistance from CRHS’s Video Productions teacher, Mr. Jesse Clark.
“It was just Draven, Jarahmya, and me,” said Colby. “Mr. Clark wasn’t involved—we just signed ourselves up.”
The students were given a randomly generated prompt, including the genre, required phrase, and required props. Their film turned into a 1920s murder-action-thriller involving a tub of frosting; the film is titled “A Recipe For Murder.”
“We had to write, direct, script, film, and edit everything in just 48 hours. It was insane,” said Draven. “I was editing to the point where I literally watched the time change at 2 AM. It went from 1:59 back to 1:00. That’s how deep in it I was.”
The short film featured original music composed by student Colby Wilcox and Draven Chambers’ father, David Chambers, which ultimately earned them the Best Original Score award.
“We didn’t expect to win, but we knew our original music made us stand out,” said Draven.
The win was announced during the livestreamed awards ceremony.
“It took forever for them to show the award on screen,” said Colby. “We were just sitting there thinking, ‘We didn’t get it,’ and then it popped up and we screamed.”
Though the trio didn’t place in the overall top three, they were proud of their performance and grateful for the opportunity to showcase their skills. “We felt kind of robbed,” Colby admitted with a laugh, “but the music award made it worth it.”
The students credited senior Jarahmya Swensen with leading the technical side of the production. “Jarahmya was one of the actors and our tech guy. He knew how to do everything,” Colby added.
All three students are in their third year of film class and will be the first at Canyon Ridge to graduate with cords in film.
The film program itself has evolved significantly in recent years, thanks in part to instructor Mr. Clark, who took over after the previous teacher stepped away.
“Mr. Lavin started a video class before I was here, and then I picked it up and put some twists on it,” said Mr. Clark. “We’ve just been adapting and moving forward.”
Clark brings more than two decades of professional experience in sports video production, advertising, and live broadcasting. “I’ve done TV commercials, freelance producing, and worked with the NFHS Network, ESPN, and CBS Sports,” he said.
Though he never planned on becoming a teacher, Clark said he’s found his purpose in the classroom. “I never would have guessed I’d be a teacher, but I have faith that God puts us in certain positions,” he said. “I’m trusting His plan—and I love being here.”
You can watch “A Recipe For Murder” here:
