On March 4, in front of over 700 people in attendance, WarriorTV received an astounding 28 nominations at the 48 Hour Film Festival at Northwood High, according to ocff.org.

Film nominations included “You,” “London,” “WarriorTV,” “Run,” “These four Walls,” “No Limits,” “The Ask Off, ”“Senioritis,” “ Five Dollars,” “Jersey Jam” and “Protect Your Ears.” Individual nominations included seniors Dan Lesser, Abeed Malik, Brandon Ledina, Lauren Avazian, Katie Rogerson, juniors Connor Simon, Claire Imler, Ana Sayre, sophomore Theo Guyot, freshman Benjamin Chang and University High alumnus Neema Sadeghi.   

After winning the 24 hour film festival last year with eight nominations under director and alumni Jacob Tori and Lesser, the entire crew was amazed by the amount of nominations they received this year, according to Ledina.

“This year, we blew every other school out of the water!” Lesser said.

Organized by FilmEd, 13 high schools from Orange County are provided with the option of filming between film noir or historical fiction, according to Lesser.  

“The purpose of the event is to inspire students film makers across Orange County to create the best films they can,” Lesser said.

After a genre is decided, the video production crew has two weeks to write, cast and practice shooting the film. Despite this preparation, the actual film cannot be shot until 48 hours before the deadline, according to Lesser.

The catch is that the film must consist of a prop, a specified phrase and a character name. This year, the prop was a bike, the phrase was “sorry I am late” and the character name was “Mr. Walter.”     

“Our story follows a girl in three stage of life as she follows in her father’s footsteps,” Lesser said. “We are airing the film in our next episode, and we are very excited.”    

Finishing the production of the film three hours prior to the submission deadline on Jan. 29, Imler commented on the relaxed atmosphere of the crew.

“It usually is very stressful because we are very rushed, but this year was a very relaxing process because everyone is running around to get stuff done,” Imler said.   

Working on the film as a pre-production team member, Simon recalled the joyful and close moments he spent with other crew members.

“The team has a really friendly environment where we all can be productive and still have a joyful experience,” Simon said. “We even had time to play games, go out for food and even sleep well.”   

With many crew members moving onto college this year, Lesser left a final remark on the overall experience this past year.

“WarriorTV really stepped up their game this year in becoming a competitive player in the film making game of Orange County high schools, and we’ve grown so much as a family,”  Lesser said. “We love doing what we do, and it’s so much more than just making a TV show.”