Grace Dietz
Executive Arts Editor
Sophomore Ethan Nahlinder proves to student filmmakers that their dreams are achievable after winning a filmmaking award.
Nahlinder took home the award for Best Visual Effects for his short film “Void” at the All American High School Film Festival in New York City in October.
“I was first excited to know that I was an official selection and my film would be screened and then excited again to know that I was a finalist,” Nahlinder said. “It was a shock to see my name in bold on the festival’s website and I was in awe to know that my film was able to reach that kind of potential.”
Nahlinder’s short film, “Void,” focuses on an astronaut from a parallel universe who travels to other worlds through a void in space. However, the astronaut must face the consequences of space travel.
“I just read my storyboard over and visualized how it looked in my head and saw what parts I should remove or add,” Nahlinder said. “In the last parallel universe that the character visits, he’s out of fuel and his counterpart is dead, so he might as well take his counterpart’s place and start over.”
Nahlinder directed, wrote and edited “Void.” He is also the lead in the short film and experienced what it was like to star as an actor, while also being in charge of how the story plays out.
“It’s easy for me to create videos on my own because I don’t have to ask anyone else to be in it,” Nahlinder said. “For this particular project, the best part was probably while I was editing and putting the special effects shots together. It was amazing to see that what I imagined was able to come true.”
The inspiration for Nahlinder’s short film came from YouTube, where he discovered a video of men injecting ink into a fish tank and using the ink to create visuals of different shapes and objects.
“There was a particular shot in the video that kind of looked like space to me and they did something to make it open up like a void,” Nahlinder said. “After that, I experimented with those kinds of effects for a while and then wrote my script.”
Nahlinder knew at a young age that he wanted a career in filmmaking. The inspiration for his endeavors came from his love of ground-breaking movies and award-winning directors, such as Steven Spielberg.
“When I was seven years old, my dad was in his bedroom watching a movie,” Nahlinder said. “I walked in and saw him watching Indiana Jones and I was completely mesmerized [and] I thought that was the pinnacle of storytelling and that moment was the starting point for me.”
Nahlinder experimented with special effects and created his own short clips in elementary and middle school. Since then, he has continued his passion for filmmaking in Costa’s Advanced Cinematic Arts class.
“The program here is really interesting because we’re diving into filmmaking styles that I never thought that I would pursue,” Nahlinder said. “[Teacher Michael] has really taught me to discover some new techniques to use that are clever and useful in the sense of storytelling.”
Nahlinder has sent his award-winning short film to various other film festivals, such as the California Film Awards, the Sunscreen Film Festival, the Beach Cities Inspirational Film Festival and the SCREEN Student Film Festival, and he is waiting to hear back from them. For now, he plans on creating more short films in the years to come, including a public service announcement on drunk driving and texting.
“I’m making a list of different films that I want to make in the future before I graduate high school,” Nahlinder said. “If you’ve got a dream you want to accomplish, just do it. There’s nothing holding you back. Pour your soul into everything and hopefully you’ll be successful.”
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