A deaf violinist, a vengeful priest and a long-lost lover are three intriguing characters brought to life through the combined effort and talent of student screenwriters and filmmakers during the annual 10-10-10 competition.

As part of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, each year this regional contest calls all screenwriters and filmmakers from both the college and high school levels to enter. 

After which, five finalists are chosen from both categories and levels. Once the 10 scripts are written the crews are given 10 days to shoot and edit the 10-minute short.

This year City College has three finalists, screenwriters Kevin Torres and Mary Jane Johnson, and filmmaker Keith Odett.

As the competition continues it becomes more intense and exclusive.

“Universally I think we can say that in the eighth-year that this is the best work we have seen yet,” said Michael Stinson, associate professor of Film and Television.

“Totally didn’t think I had a chance,” said first-time applicant and this year’s college screenwriting winner Mary Jane Johnson.

“I completely entered on a whim,” said Johnson.

The City College freshman, originally from Japan moved to Los Angeles with her family three years ago to go to school.

Now at City College she said, ” I love it, City College is the best.”

Though still undecided in terms of her major, Johnson said she is still figuring out what she’s doing.

But in doing so she has been working on her writing she says.

“I would never in my wildest dreams thought I would be a writer,” added Johnson.

Her script titled “Silent Mercy” is about a young violin prodigy, the twist being the character is deaf. Johnson reveals a strained relationship between the girl, Mercy, and her selfish, over-indulgent mother while unraveling the layers of her complex heroine.

Fellow freshman and screenwriting finalist Kevin Torres also brought another intricate human story to the page. His screenplay entitled “Prayer For the Wicked” about a priest who enters into a downward spiral after his brother is murdered.

“I tried to go more for a dialogue-driven style,” said Torres, a 19-year-old Film Production major.

“I wanted to go for a religious approach because I thought it would be interesting and I have never done that before. I went to Catholic School also, so I’m kind of going back to that,” said Torres.

Every year the competition brings together student screenwriters and filmmakers with industry professionals. This years professionals included Glenn Leopold who mentored Torres. Leopold was a story Editor/Writer in many of Hanna-Barbera Productions such as “The Smurfs.”

“The one thing I think is going to stay with me is that he told me to put a lot of thought into your characters because that’s what the audience is going to relate to,” said Torres.

“I tried to put the character before anything else,” said Torres.

Keith Odett, the lone filmmaker from City College worked on the piece “Time Goes Bye” written by Brittany Carriger from UCSB.  This story was homage to the classic film “Casablanca.” Odett interchanged scenes from Casablanca with those of the lost love story set in Santa Barbara.

Odett, a returning student said, “I came back for college at SBCC to take film classes, meet other filmmakers, make some new short films, with getting into the SBIFF the goal. So, happy about that.”

Before going back to take classes Odett has been professionally acting (Screen Actors Guild) for many years and before that was a professional model, living in Paris, France and Milan, Italy.

Altogether three finalists and one winner from City College bring the last together.

“We are really proud of our students,” said Michael Stinson.