Make a movie in 72 hours. Win cash prizes!
You made a film in just 72 short hours!
From all our judges and the entire Tap into Film team, thank you for being part of this year's event and taking on the challange of making a film in just 72 hours. We hope you had a fun weekend. We are so proud of the films you created and we look forward to watching them all.
Be sure to share your films with family and friends, and encourage them to vote for your film in the Audience Favorite competition. Voting start now and ends May 16 @ 11:00 pm EST! The winner will be announced here.
"The Wonders of Pêche-suis"
Team: Regional Geographic
"Life In Balance"
Team: Capps Family
"The Porcupine"
Team: The Critics
"The Woodland Witch"
Team: The Pearly Dogs
"The Quill"
Team: Team Sutton Valley
"The Recipe"
Team:A.C.Q
"The Quill"
Team: Team Sutton Valley
"After the Rain"
Team: Makeroni
Vermont's Northeast Kingdom's own Emmy-nominated Matt Aeberhard, is one of the world’s leading wildlife cinematographers.
Through his lens as a filmmaker and while shooting around the globe for outfits such as Netflix and the BBC, he has seen the effects of a human-dominated world on our wildlife in up close.
Now, he is asking for your help. Make your own narrative or documentary film that celebrates the wildlife in your own backyard and answer the question: What can wildlife film be to you?
Make a narrative or documentary film that explores the theme 'wildlife' using the required script prompts in just 72 hours!
About Matt
Team Registration
Take it from Matt; you don't need to travel to the Serengeti to make a wildlife film.
Wildlife is just that, the wild life all around us. Now you can play a role in telling it's story.
Be it the bee buzzing on Spring's first wildflowers; plants sprouting in the greenhouse; the mold in your fridge; they all deserve carefull study and certainly more than the 3 minutes this competition allots.
A documentary film like Matt and Melanie's own The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos (2008) can be a poetic portrait of animals and the environment they inhabit. A film like My Octopus Teacher (2020) can highlight our relationship with the wild world as well as tell our own story.
And narrative films like Okja (2017), Fly Away Home (1996), and Life of Pi (2011) can also highlight our relationship with the wild world, explore deep philosophical questions, and still provide thrills, intrigue and laughs.
Redefine what a wildlife film can be and make one in just 72 hours!
Join our judges in person or online for a Wildlife Filmmaking Workshop.
Right after the opening kick-off, wildlife film producer and writer Melanie Finn will discuss her work; the importance of creating local wildlife films; and discuss strategies for how to create one in just 72 hours.
She will field questions and brainstorm ideas.
Melanie will get in the weeds (pun intended) of what it means to make a wildlife film and how to do it.
Melanie was lead producer and script writer for The Crimson Wing (2008) and spent thirteen months with directors Matt Aeberhard and Leader Ward shooting the film on the banks of remote Lake Natron in Tanzania.
She will share her experiences working on that film and others while fielding questions and offering guidance on writing and shooting your own wildlife film.
And get a few in the field tips from some of the world's leading wildlife cinematographers and filmmakers!
Matt himself was mentored. He got his start shooting with the naturalist Hugo Van Lawick on the plains of Serengeti filming wildlife feature films on 35mm film. Now his work can be found in The Crimson Wing, Netflix's Our Planet jungle episodes, and Disney Nature’s Penguins: Life on the Edge to name a few.
Melanie is an award winning novelist, documentary film script writer, and the founder and director of a small healthcare charity in the remote Tanzanian bush. Notable film scripts include The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos (2008) and Turtle: The Incredible Journey (2009). Her novels include The Hare, which was the winner of The Vermont Book Award 2022.
With a background in film, Bobby was a science educator at the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium in St. Johnsbury, Vermont for 18 years. There he gave planetarium presentations, led outdoor explorations, and taught countless lessons on nature, science, and history to people of all ages. Bobby is now the Vermont State Representative for Waterford, Barnet and Ryegate.
No matter what camera you use or your experience level, make a wildlife themed film that includes the required script elements, upload your film to YouTube, and share the link with us before the 72 hour clock runs out to be entered into the running for cash prizes and scholarships!
Award Details
Teams participating virtually, watch the kick off and watch party right here!
Join our judges and celebrate the completion of your films with an in-person NEK Film Showcase on Sunday night at the Art Port in St Johnsbury.
The official festival wide awards ceremony will be presented by our judges at the Awards Watch Party here on May 14 @ 6:30 pm EST!
You’re on location, and your family and friends are your cast and crew! Tap Into Film allows any family or youth team to compete in a global online film competition with cash prizes and scholarships.
Protecting the environment starts in your backyard! We want to know what makes it special, how has it changed, what challenges does it face.
Even when participating remotely, filmmaking is collaborative, and there’s an entire online community eager to help! Check out all the videos at our online learning center.
Both brackets win prizes! Teams with past filmmaking experience should enroll in the Competitive bracket and those that are new to filmmaking can choose to either enroll in the Competitive or Family Fun bracket.
Family Teams led by one or more "Experienced Filmmakers" (If you’ve made films before or you’re in film school, you probably belong in this bracket)
Amateur Family Teams with no or limited filmmaking experience and/or teams led by Youth Filmmakers (14yo or younger).
Periodically, leading up to the event, we will release a new required script element for your film to include. In the past these have included props, sound clips, lines of dialog, and genre. Follow us on Instagram and sign up early to get the latest releases and get a leg up on the competition.
Best Film
[Competitive Bracket]
$1000 Cash & $2500 Tuition Scholarship to any SOCAPA Filmmaking Intensive
[Family Fun Bracket]
$500 Cash and a $1,000 Tuition Scholarship to any SOCAPA Filmmaking Intensive
Best Acting
[Competitive Bracket]
$500 Tuition Scholarship to any SOCAPA Acting Intensive.
[Family Fun Bracket]
$250 Tuition Scholarship to any SOCAPA Acting Intensive.
All Brackets
Audience Favorite - $150 Cash Award
Participation Raffle - $50 Cash Awards (Two Drawings)
NEK In-Person Film Showcase
[$600 in NEK awards offered by Kingdom Access TV]
Since 1975, Catamount Arts has presented world-class performances and independent films to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Promoting arts as the heart of community, Catamount offers classes, camps, and workshops to kids and adults; performance and exhibition opportunities to local and national artists; and a regional box office for 40 Northern New England arts organizations. Catamount produces the KCP Performing Arts Series, First Night North, and the Levitt AMP St. Johnsbury Music Series, and is thrilled to partner with SOCAPA once again for the Tap Into Film 72-hr Film Slam.
Teams must have at least one member under the age of 21.
Final films should be 1 to 3 minutes in length. All films must be produced, edited, exported and submitted during the 72-hour period. Films submitted after the deadline will not be elligable for prizes, but can be hosted on the watch page.
Final films must include: A beginning title card with: The film’s title, “Made for the Tap into Film 72 Hour Online Family Film Slam”, the team name, and the names of all team members.
FILM TITLE
“Made for the Tap into Film 72 Hour Online Family Film Slam”
TEAM NAME
First Last
First Last
First Last
All films must be PG. Basically: don’t produce anything you wouldn’t want your grandmother or younger siblings to see. Prohibited content includes (but may not be limited to) drug use, sex, graphic violence, and defamatory statements. Additionally, no copyrighted materials should appear within students’ films. If any of these rules are broken, the films will be disqualified at the sole discretion of the Film Slam judges. Any assigned props/locations/themes must be used in the film.
Use what you have - cellphones are great! Keep it simple.
Alex has been working with Catamount Arts to co-direct the 48 Hour Student Film Slam since the start of the event seven years ago. A Burlington, Vermont native, Alex has a passion for telling stories. He teaches filmmaking full-time at St. Johnsbury Academy and is the Academy’s Lead Video Marketer. He has worked on documentary and narrative films, as well as commercials. Alex has worked alongside directors Alma Har’el, Jamie Yerkes and Bess O’Brien. Alex has well-rounded experience behind the camera, editing, producing and directing; which he is particularly drawn to. Not only does he love making films, but he strives to share his passion by teaching and inspiring the young storytellers he works with each day.
A Vermont cinemtographer, editor and Technical Director for SOCAPA's summer programs, Patrick is the man behind the curtain at Tap Into Film. Working with Vermont filmmaker, Bess O'Brien, Patrick has been prinicple camera on four feature documentaries and numerous short films. He has also edited several feature documentaries and one narrative feature. [patrickrobertkennedy.com]
"The Kat Whisperer"
Team: The Reaperz
"Spy Guy"
Team: WesMotion Animations
"Moonlight in Vermont"
Team: General Admission
"The Road Critic"
Team: SWRLRC
"Spy Guy"
Team: WesMotion Animations
"Wild Quest"
Team: Moore is More
"Operation Exodus"
Team: The Vermonstskis
TAP INTO FILM would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. Please email Jody Fried at jfried@catamountarts.org if you would like to become a sponsor.
