Skipper Film Hits a Home Run

A film about the inspirational hometown hero Skipper Carrillo made by student filmmakers John Barrett, Aaron Fong and Austin Dodge won for best high school film at the fifth annual My Hero film festival, which took place at USC this past Saturday.

The Laguna Beach High School students who created "Have a Home Run Day” had participated in a filmmaking workshop led by media arts educator Wendy Milette, an organizer of the My Hero film fest and a website about inspirational people.

“I loved having my students work on a project that salutes people who go the extra mile for others,” said Pam MacKay, who teaches a video production class at the high school.

This short film exemplifies what it means to be a hero and how heroes like Skipper’s dad, inspired Skipper to become a hero himself, said a statement from the festival. For years, Skipper has helped inspire the baseball team by attending nearly every game. Due to his involvement, the field was named in his honor. Nearly every conversation he ends with his signature message of inspiration: “have a home run day.”

Film director, John Barrett, is a junior at Laguna Beach High School and an aspiring filmmaker.

“Making the video took a very long time because we had to have rights to all of our own footage and music, so I had to make a song for it in Garage Band. As for the other MyHero videos I have seen, they are really amazing. Each and every video involved and demonstrated the most amazing aspect of any typical hero from someone’s mom to Abraham Lincoln,” Barrett said.