Courtesy of Shanie Spotts BRIGHT MIND—Filmmaker Aaron Van Driessche, right, of Simi Valley answers questions from the audience last weekend after presenting his music video at the 2009 SONscreen Festival Awards Gala, a Christian-based film festival sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Thousands of miles away from his new home at a naval training facility in Newport, R.I., Aaron Van Driessche's imagination runs wild.

He's back in his hometown of Simi Valley thinking about his next video project—a comedy sketch that combines the MTV staple "The Real World" with the "Power Rangers" children's show.

Van Driessche, who graduated from Royal High School last year and was accepted into the Navy's Officer Training Command center, earned a Best Music Video nomination in the seventh SONscreen Film Festival in Simi Valley. He returned home for the event last weekend.

SONscreen is a Christian-based film festival held at AMP Studios on Cochran Street and sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Van Driessche, 19, his older brother Jeremy and friends Stash Dabrowski, Jerrid Meikle and Cameron Mooney submitted a music video they made during spring break last year. The video is based on the 2001 Backstreet Boys' song "Drowning."

They filmed the video in a couple of days using two digital camcorders, an Apple iMovie editing system and a budget of $15 that went toward a Subway lunch for the cast and crew. Van Driessche then spent three weeks editing about 1,300 minutes of raw footage.

Although his film was not named a winner at SONscreen, Van Driessche enjoyed the experience.

"It was an incredible honor for people to come up to us and say, 'You have what it takes,'" he said. "The whole experience was cool. . . . From the get-go, this was about making something artistic and appreciating being back home with my best friends."

Van Driessche said he figured he was a long shot to win since the other finalists had strong religious messages.

"It wasn't exactly the right audience," he said.

The crew filmed the video last spring as a class project for video production teacher Alicia De La Torre at Royal. Van Driessche gave credit to his mother, Marcella, and friend Danielle Wiegand for their help on the project, especially during filming, and praised Royal senior Tori Haynes for acting in the short.

"If it wasn't for her, it wouldn't be worth watching," the young filmmaker quipped.

Van Driessche's first video project was as a junior in English teacher Judy Haren's class. He created a short film, based on the T.S. Eliot poem "The Hollow Men," which was nominated in the drama category at SONscreen last year.

Van Driessche needed written permission from his superiors to leave Naval training and attend the festival. About 40 friends and family joined him for the celebration. Marcella Van Driessche hopes her son will continue to find an outlet for his vivid imagination.

"I'm hoping when goes to the Naval Academy they'll see his gift and let him use it there," she said.

Her son will be home for six weeks in May. Instead of relaxing, Van Driessche and Meikle will work on "The Real World"-"Power Rangers" comedy.

"As much as I'd like to come home and relax, I need to purge my creativity," Van Driessche said.

In June, he'll enroll as a fulltime student at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Van Driessche, who won a Marmonte League wrestling title as a senior, said he'd like to be a military lawyer and make movies, too.

To see a clip of the video, visit www.youtube.com and type "Drown Lovers" in the search bar.