South Lakes Senior Earns Spot in Tribeca Film Festival

Kat Vlasova, a senior at South Lakes High School, is an emerging artist musician and photographer. She is also a self-proclaimed “avid Snapchatter and procrastinator.”

The latter skills got Vlasova a spot in the Tribeca Film Festival, which wrapped up Sunday in New York City. Vlasova’s short film, Pencils, composed using Snapchat, of course, was chosen as one of the winners.

The Tribeca Film Festival this year teamed up with the mobile app Snapchat on a competition to find “the best Snapchat Stories across the U.S.”

Ten winners were chosen, and the work will be featured in a special Discover channel within Snapchat.

The winners were chosen by a jury of  storytellers and avid Snapchatters, and the short films were screened during the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. Three will be featured on Snapchat.

Here’s Vlasova’s synopsis:

You know that time when you’re trying your best to study but you just keep getting distracted? And then you get so preoccupied with doing a random simple thing just to procrastinate on your homework such as looking for a pencil?

And then before you know it, you’ve chased a man out into space but your calculus is still unresolved and it’s already 10 p.m? Yeah, me too.

Tribeca says that this first-of-its-kind competition “casts a spotlight on the imagination and creativity of Snapchat users, while also touting the ephemeral messaging app as more than just something young people use to chat with one another. Snapchat wants to expand the way people approach it, similar to what happened with YouTube.”

Vlasova said in a YouTube interview she thought she was being pranked when the Snapchat folks tried to call her last month to tell her she was among the top 10.

“I was in shock,” she said.

When she finally realized it was no joke, she got to enjoy the perks of a filmmaker life, including a trip to the Tribeca Film Festival last week and the use of a new state-of-the-art Samsung camera to make another film in New York City.

“It is pretty surreal to be an 18-year-old girl being driven around in a black Escalade all over New York City to make a short film,” Vlasova said (see You Tube clip above to fill interview). “Making something in short amount of time, was definitely intense.”

Vlasova will have lots more New york experiences starting later this year. She plans to attend New York University in the fall.

Snapchat did not say how many entries it received or to provide any additional information beyond revealing that the winners will appear on the app starting today.

For more info on Vlsaova, follow her on Snapchat: alienpinecone;
Instagram: katalexvlasova; Tumblr: katvlasova.tumblr.com; and Twitter: AlienPinecone.