A group of six Maize students took home the student award at the Down to the Wire film making race this summer.

Together, Todd Nelson, Ethan Gledhill, Jessica Curtiss, Lauren Debes, Trevor Farney and Grant Risinger began the race at 7 p.m. Aug. 7. They were required to complete a six minute video within a 24-hour time frame.

“When they say down to the wire in 24 hours, they mean it,” senior Ethan Gledhill said. “We didn’t sleep the entire time. By the time we turned it in, I’d been awake for 38 hours.” Gledhill was the team’s production and sound manager.

Participants were given four elements that they were required to use. Those elements were a theme, a specified prop, an action and a line.

“There was a crazy amount of things that happened within the 24 hours,” senior Jessica Curtiss, who played the love interest, said. “Lauren forgot the release form three times.”

Out of 35 teams total, 10 were selected to be shown in the Orpheum theater. Their team’s movie, “Identity of a Shattered Mind,” was one of those ten. Curtiss said seeing her film on the big screen was really touching.

“It makes you feel like what you did made an impact on somebody else,” she said.

The students said they would like to participate in the contest again if they can.

“I cried later that night because it was one of the best nights of my life, Gledhill said. “We had put so much work into this thing.”