Leah McKissock

Santa Rosa High School grad Leah McKissock (’07) won the grand prize in a recent filmmaking competition.

The following information was provided by the Cal State Long Beach, where McKissock, 22, is a senior expected to graduate with a degree in film and electronic arts this semester.

McKissock’s prize is $50,000 for winning the OnVidi.com student film contest for her 2-minute, 22 second music video featuring Israeli singer Mika Ben-Yami. McKissock’s work was deemed the best overall submission.

 The OnVidi.com Student Film Contest asked students to submit an original, three-minute or less film, video or digital production that fell into one of five categories—comedy, action, drama/romance, music video or documentary. 

 McKissock told Long Beach State officials that the shoot was plagued with problems, including the departure of the steady cam operator – crucial for her concept of shooting the video in one take.

As the production was running out of daylight, the cinematographer stepped in and shot the entire video handheld.

McKissock told officials she will share a portion of the prize money with Daniel Woltosz, a CSULB film alumni who produced the “Nothing is Wrong” music video for her.  She said without him and his efforts, there never would have been a video at all.

To see McKissock’s video and some other first prize winners, click here: http://www.onvidi.com/student_winners/grandprize/