In high school, I was invited by my filmmaking teacher to participate in a five-person team for the annual 48-Hour High School Film-Off, one of the competitions organized by the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) in Seattle.  The challenge: in 48 hours, write, shoot, and edit a 3-minute short film that depicts two “arts” and uses the line “It’s not where you take things from, it’s where you take them to.”

Given that this was my school’s first-ever entry in the 48-Hour Film-Off, we were flying truly blind and resigned to the idea that we would simply have fun without any ambitions of placing.  The result: “Watermelon in a Cart,” a story about the local high school talent show and its participants.  For my part, I played a comically confident student self-assured in the “art” of his speedy abilities as a grocery bagger.

In an unexpected turn of events, our short was picked for 1st place in the competition (alas, none of us had thought to attend the ceremony to accept the prize in person…).