A local high school student filmmaker recently took home seven awards in one night at the Atlanta High School Film Festival.
Sam Morgan, a Junior at North Hall High School, and owner of the Pictures Up Productions Youtube Channel, entered his short films "One Night In Squatchtown" and "is this ForReal?" and took home awards in major categories.
"One Night In Squatchtown" earned Morgan and his team six awards, which included Best Overall Film, Best Narrative, Audience Choice Award, Best Director (Sam Morgan), Best Original Score (Reece Moseley) and Best Actor (Reece Moseley). Additionally, "is this ForReal?" was named the Best Georgia Film at the festival.
"One Night In Squatchtown" is a comedy that follows a group of friends who go camping for a night where everything seems to go wrong, but ultimately brings the group closer together.
Morgan, who also acts in the film, said the road to creating the short started long before it was filmed in 2022.
“The very first idea that ended up making its way into the final film was an idea that I had all the way back in freshman year,” Morgan explained. “But as time went on, and my life changed, the themes and the tone of the script started to change. And ultimately, what it turned out being is a story about growing up, and it's a story about that sort of universal fear and anxiety towards leaving high school, and it's about the fear of losing friendships.”
Morgan also emphasized what about the film he was most proud of.
“[The film] has a lot of very comical elements, like almost slapstick to it, but what I'm most proud of is the heart that we were able to incorporate into it,” he said. “And what I'm most proud about in that project, and really, in any project, is anytime that I'm able to effectively convey real emotion, and people are able to relate to that.”
While the project is one of his most recent, Morgan noted that filmmaking has been a lifelong hobby since he began experimenting with stop-motion filmmaking as early as 2nd grade.
“It really started just as a childhood hobby with me playing with my action figures and evolved from there, telling more and more advanced stories, using more and more advanced techniques, more and more advanced equipment,” he said.
Morgan’s other notable achievements include having five films selected to play at the All American High School Film Festival, which is the largest high school film festival in the Country, and winning the Vlog Life Award at the event for his film "The English Project" in 2022. Additionally, his short film "k." was named the Overall Winner of the Young Filmmakers Competition at the Austin Film Festival in 2021.
Pictures Up Productions also has other high schoolers that star in and help behind the scenes, most of them being close friends of Morgan’s.
Morgan explained he feels his friendship with the team accentuates his projects.
“In the case of 'One Night in Squatchtown', I feel like part of what makes it so good is the chemistry between the main group of people and that's because all of us knew each other for a while going into the project,” he said. “ And so, a lot of the chemistry that you see on screen is real, a lot of the characters were written with the performers who ended up playing them in mind.”
The cast and crew of One Night in Squatchtown, as well as other projects, are as follows:
Reece Moseley
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UGA music student (freshman)
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Score composer (One Night in Squatchtown, is this ForReal?)
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Actor (One Night in Squatchtown, is this ForReal?, A Halloween to Forget)
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Co-Writer (One Night in Squatchtown)
Michael Light
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NHHS Junior
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Co-Director (is this ForReal?)
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Actor (One Night inSquatchtown, is this ForReal?)
Zoe Davidson
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NHHS Senior
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Co-Director (newyearseve.mp4)
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Actress (One Night in Squatchtown, A Halloween to Forget, newyearseve.mp4, Out for Delivery)
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Co-Producer (One Night in Squatchtown)
Mandy Baker
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NHHS Junior
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Assistant Director (is this ForReal, newyearseve.mp4, A Halloween to Forget, The English Project)
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Actress (newyearseve.mp4)
Anajulia Canavan-Lima
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NHHS Senior
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Actress (One Night in Squatchtown)
Elizabeth Hawn
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UNG freshman, NHHS grad
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Assistant Director (One Night in Squatchtown)
