(CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – The first annual Jetspress Awards event, dubbed “The Johnnys,” will launch a three-week celebration of student cinematography at James Clemens High School.

“‘The Johnnys’ are a high-school version of the Oscars, complete with black ties, awards, musical performances, guest appearances and a red carpet,” broadcasting and media instructor Daniel Whitt said.

The award show is slated for May 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the James Clemens auditorium.

The Johnnys “are lovingly named after the makeshift, unofficial school mascot, Johnny The Jet, begun by James Clemens senior Zachary Layman,” Whitt said. “Zachary will be passing the honor down to a rising sophomore, Trey Buis.”

Like their Academy Awards counterpart, The Johnnys will include awards for the best actors and actresses in lead and supporting roles, film, cinematography, animation, music video, directing, original music or score — even the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jetspress students welcome the public to this star-studded yet free event. Concessions will be available. “Don’t forget to don your finest attire for your red-carpet entrance,” Whitt said.

The awards night will usher in “The Celebration,” three weeks of films that promote life from various student perspectives. Jetspress students will release “one celebratory film per day from May 7 until the end of school on their JetsPressJCHS YouTube channel (youtube.com/JetsPressJCHS),” Whitt said.

All these student-produced films have positive messages. The Jets students opened their film work last fall in a successful horror and suspense film festival, “The October Project.”

“Some of these films have been nominated for a Johnny award, but there are many other films nominated that weren’t part of that festival,” Whitt said.

Examples of short films in “The Celebration” include an all-original 8-bit animation, reminiscent of original Nintendo gaming, “that is very uplifting, which took the student three months to make,” Whitt said.

Another is a film that salutes “the great cycle of life by illustrating birth, death and the legacy of three humans through a split-screen motif,” he said. Another film uses mountain hiking metaphorically to celebrate goal achievement.