NORWALK - Cerritos College film student Peter Catania earned honorable mention at the 3C Media Solutions Fifth Annual Student Film and Video Festival.Catania's short film, "Writer's Block," is a fantasy about an author who sets up his desk in the middle of a park as a last ditch effort to get inspiration for his story. When he hits the keys to his typewriter, instead of hearing the keys slap against the paper, he hears piano notes. The author continues typing and a song begins to emerge from what he is writing. The annual competition is conducted by 3C Media, the educational media distribution network that assists the California community college network with media solutions. Entries for the competition come from schools across the state. Catania, of Signal Hill, received his AA from Cerritos College in 2009. After graduating, he began taking film production classes with Professor Steven Hirohama. He will study television production in the fall and hopes to become a feature film director. "When Professor Hirohama told me I was receiving an honorable mention, I could not contain the overwhelming feeling of accomplishment," Catania said. "The hard (and free) work from my case and crew is now getting noticed. After that, the feeling of joy settled in and I've been happy ever since." "Pete put a lot of work in location scouting, casting and even had a composer score the film," Hirohama said. "Pete took a simple idea and executed it very well. He did something I wish more advanced film students would do, which is to shoot film. It's great to have Pete as a student."

********** Published: June 11, 2010 - Volume 9 - Issue 8