From High School Summer Camp to HBO - A Passion for Self Expression Through Films

What inspires a person to follow the revving engine of their internal drive for success? Sixteen year old Christina Frenzel is allowing her passion for self-expression to drive her down a visionary path marked by self-fulfilled accomplishments in filmmaking. With each new venture she continues to define her destiny. Perhaps it all began with The Never Ending Story. When Christina was 5 years old, she felt a strong connection and began creating countless sequels to the fantasy film in her mind. Later, at age 12, she took over her parents VHS Camera for a class project. Her passion for Chris Carter's sci-fi series, X-Files, led her to edit together a project on her favorite show by using two household VCR's to piece poignant clips together. Christina realized she enjoyed sharing her passion with others through video. Consequently, when a video production class was offered at her middle school in Los Altos, California, she signed up. Although the class did not use sophisticated equipment, Christina learned the basics of composing good shots. It was during her second semester in the class that she found out about the National Children's Film Festival (now known as Backyard National Children's Film Festival). Christina wanted to make a movie that mattered to her for the festival. Having a difficult time in the Machiavellian social arena of middle school, like so many others, Christina's movie, "I Wish," focused on the deep chasm between the popular kids and the loners at her school. Her soccer coach took her under his wing and helped her edit the piece on his Media 100 system. Christina's film made it to the finals of the festival and took 1st place for California. It was during this time that Christina stumbled upon iD Tech Camps. With few high school summer camps in the country offering youth professional skills in Digital Video Production, Christina tried this summer technology program. Editing with Apple