Five Ballard High School students won the 48 Hour Film Off at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) on May 1.

The competition began at the conclusion of NFFTY Opening Night April 29. To ensure that no preproduction had been done before then, teams from Bellevue, Franklin, Mount Si and Ballard were given critical props, a key line of spoken dialogue and a theme that must be prominently featured in the short film.

Ballard High School video students John Christensen, Sydney Jarol, Matt Law-Phipps, Rikke Heinecke and Ryan Zemke then worked around the clock to produce a three-minute narrative short in only 48 hours.

The team worked on scripts, storyboarding, production schedules, shooting and editing in order to deliver a finished short in time for the May 1 deadline.

A jury of four professional filmmakers, along with audience voting, selected the Ballard short, "Charlie," as the winner.

The winning producers received Nike 6.0, Skullcandy gear and a $2,500 scholarship for the Ballard High School Video Production Program.

The winning short will be screened, along with other award-winning work from students in the Video Production Program, at The Showing in the Ballard High School auditorium at 7 p.m. on June 11.

The National Film Festival for Talented Youth, the largest film festival for filmmakers age 22 and younger, features more than 100 film screenings, filmmaking panels, concerts by youth bands and opportunities for young filmmakers to network with industry professionals and each other. It was founded by Ballard High School graduate Jesse Harris.