Junior Kember Campbell and senior Colton White won second place for their short film “Checkers” for Skills USA in Digital Cinema Production.

“We were asked to make a short video on the prompt, ‘an unexpected victory’,” White said. “Our video was a love story told through flashbacks during a board game.”

There were twenty entries at the competition in Corpus Christi where the groups took a test about video production and then were given their prompt for their film.

“Colton White and myself were inspired by the Pixar-Disney short of the old man playing chess against himself,” Kember said. “Our film shows a man sitting down to play checkers, and with each move he makes there is a flashback. These flashbacks retell the story of him meeting and falling in love with a girl. They eventually get married, however she dies giving birth to their child. In the checkers game, we finally see that he has been playing checkers against the girl he loved. And when he wins the game, she disappears from the table at which they played.”

Kember and White’s film included only two lines and was focused on the man learning to understand life. It included themes of sacrifice and victory, and that love and priorities conquers loss. The pair pitched their movie to a judge, in which they won second place. You can watch their short film here. 

“We wanted there to be a power in silence and in the spoken words in the film,” Kember said. “After he has this revelation, the film cuts to 10 years after the death of his wife, and we see him playing video games with his son.”