Whitman Middle School teacher Christopher King won the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2010 Literary Contest award for best screenplay July 24 for his script "Jade."

King said it felt wonderful to win the screenplay category with "Jade," a humorous action-adventure piece centered around the illegal trafficking of ancient antiquities.

"Short of getting a screenplay produced, receiving positive recognistion for one's writing is the most satisfying thing that can happen for a writer," he said. "It means that your story worked – that someone 'got it.'"

"Jade" is set in Mexico and Pamplona, Spain, and tells the story of two strong male leads who can't stand each other teaming up with a beautiful, duplicitous daughter of a respected archaeologist to deliver a precious Olmec jade frieze to a private collector.

King got the idea for his script from his colleague, Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Beristain ("Blade 2," "Blade: Trinity," "S.W.A.T.") after the two had finished co-writing a script about artist/photographer Tina Modotti.

King started off in the entertainment business as a cameraman and editor, so he said he tends to think visually, and writing screenplays is just a natural extension of that.

"As cliched as it sounds, everyone has a story to tell," he said. "Besides, I don't know that I have the patience to write a novel."

King, who started at Whitman in 2007, is the Media Literacy and TV Production teacher.

Students in today's world need to be able to consume and create their own media messages, he said.

He said he tries to teach the students how to look critically at messages and how to use their own skill sets to create media themselves.

King said his students have a lot to say, he just gives them the tools.

"I tell all of my students at the beginning of the class that filmmaking, good filmmaking at least, is all about storytelling," he said.

In addition to his award for "Jade," King is a former Writers Guild of America, East Fellowship Award winner. He has worked as a cameraman and editor in Washington, D.C., covering Capitol Hill and the White House. And, he worked as a production assistant on Paramount Picture's Emmy Award-winning miniseries "The Winds of War."