It was pretty clear early on in the judging process that two eighth graders would clinch the Best Technical award in our Shanghai Student Film Festival. The reason was simple - these two had taught themselves Maya - an amazingly complex 3D animation program to help illustrate a poem for their poetry class.

Before we get to the video, I'll just take a second to plug the new S2F2 YouTube Channel, which will feature some of the amazing videos that were submitted to the festival. We'll be uploading more in the next few weeks. If you subscribe to the channel, you'll be notified as we add more. Now without further ado...

Tuesday 9:00 AM by Jack Chen and Mike Chin:



The music they found matches the tone of poem nicely.


Tuesday 9:00 AM


A man standing at the bus stop
reading the newspaper is on fire
Flames are peeking out
from beneath his collar and cuffs
His shoes have begun to melt

The woman next to him
wants to mention it to him
that he is burning
but she is drowning
Water is everywhere
in her mouth and ears
in her eyes
A stream of water runs
steadily from her blouse

Another woman stands at the bus stop
freezing to death
She tries to stand near the man
who is on fire
to try to melt the icicles
that have formed on her eyelashes
and on her nostrils
to stop her teeth long enough
from chattering to say something
to the woman who is drowning
but the woman who is freezing to death
has trouble moving
with blocks of ice on her feet

It takes the three some time
to board the bus
what with the flames
and water and ice
But when they finally climb the stairs
and take their seats
the driver doesn't even notice
that none of them has paid
because he is tortured
by visions and is wondering
if the man who got off at the last stop
was really being mauled to death
by wild dogs.


Denver Butson