HHS Entertainment Technology Students Have Great Success at All American High School Film Festival
Howell High School’s Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Program features the Entertainment Technology Video tract. This group of students had a great weekend at the 2019 All American High School Film Festival. Howell went into the festival with a record eight official selections and walked into the Teen Indie Awards at the Kings Theater with three nominated films.
Senior Lulu Chouha's vlog "Lulu" was nominated in the new Vlog Life category. Senior Sophie Genovese-Mester and class of 2019 graduate Shannon Miller were nominated in the Best PSA category for their project "Mother Nature."
After three days of filming and editing around New York City, the Howell competition team's hard work on "Dire State of Mind" was showcased when the film received a nominee for Best Invitational Film. The project was directed by Lulu Chouha and written by seniors Sean Villa and Sophie Genovese-Mester.
The surprise victory of the night was senior Mitch Ritter, who took home the Josten's-sponsored Photographer of the Year award. The win provides a $78,000 scholarship to the Minnesota College of Art and Design.
Since 1984, the Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Program has provided conservatory type training to young artists who want to combine a college preparatory schedule with advanced arts training in a traditional high school setting. Graduates have gone on to traditional liberal arts colleges and prestigious institutions for the performing arts such as NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Juilliard, University of Southern California, University of the Arts, Mason-Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, Berklee College, University of Miami, and many more.
Alumnae have starred in or work behind-the-scenes on feature films, national television shows (The Daily Show, Designated Survivor, The Rachael Ray Show), and national and world tours of musicals (Miss Saigon). They have won Peabody and Emmy awards for video editing, received Emmy awards for acting, published books, produced independent films, and edited and written for national magazines and newspapers. Furthermore, Fine and Performing Arts alumnae have also become successful in fields beyond the arts including medicine, physical and speech therapy, education, entertainment law and management, and architecture.
FPA offers a four-year program in three distinct majors: Acting, Dance, and Entertainment Technology, which includes a music production and a video production track. Students train and work in an acting studio, two dance studios, a video studio and a music production and recording studio. They produce and perform in a number of showcases and are encouraged to participate in the numerous arts and other extracurricular programs offered at Howell High School. In the past few years, our students have entered and won awards at numerous festivals and competitions: All American High School Film Festival, Garden State Film Festival, and Count Basie Project FX Film Festival, to name a few.
In addition to the emphasis on the fine and performing arts, we expect a high standard of academic achievement from students. Since 2012, four FPAC students have been either valedictorian or salutatorian of their class.