Benji Kaufman A young filmmaker at Santa Susana High School has been awarded a $2,500 prize, and if he garners enough votes from the public, he could win as much as $20,000 for his school’s art programs.

A contest sponsored by the California Milk Processor Board—creators of the “Got Milk?” campaign—encouraged California high school students to re-create scenes from its 20minute milk-centered rock opera, which recently debuted online.

The milk board’s “Battle for Milkquarious” is intended to teach California teens about the health benefits of drinking milk for strong bones, muscles, hair, teeth and nails. The rock opera chronicles White Gold’s quest to save the town of Milkquarious from a milk shortage.

Students at California public high schools, ages 14 to 18, were asked to re-create one of the scenes from the rock opera and submit their video entries online.

Santa Susana’s Benji Kaufman made the contest his senior project.

He held auditions, wrote the script and filmed and edited the movie.

“I was surprised, but more I was just very overjoyed,” Benji said. “I’ve done contests like this before and never got into the finals or any recognition really. I’m really happy. I put so much work into something, and it finally gets recognized and appreciated.”

Benji’s senior project adviser, theater teacher Melissa Albertson, said she thought immediately of him when she heard about the contest.

“Benji is a very talented kid, and he’s very creative,” Albertson said. “He wants to be a doctor, in addition to being an artist. He’s very intelligent when it comes to worldly things—that’s why he’s so good with the camera.”

Judges selected nine finalists, and an online vote decided the 10th. Online public voting to decide the grand-prize winner will be open until 10 a.m. Sun., Jan. 24. The winner will be announced Jan. 25.

The grand prize is $20,000 for the school’s art programs. The second-place winner will take home $10,000, and the eight other finalists will keep their $2,500.

“Arts, music and drama programs are routinely the first programs to be drastically reduced or eliminated in times of economic crisis,” said Steve James, executive director of the California Milk Processor Board. “It’s very gratifying for us to be able to make this positive contribution to the intellectual and artistic development of California’s students.”

Albertson said Santa Susana has been luckier than most when it comes to cuts in arts programs.

“Santa Susana is an arts, technology and academic school,” Albertson said. “It’s a shame with all the cuts, and we’ve been really fortunate. We have some strong programs in place, so many different programs we want to hold on to.”

The other nine finalists are: El Molino High School in Forestville, Dublin High School in Dublin, Santa Teresa High School in San Jose, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in Los Angeles, San Dieguito High School Academy in Encinitas, Marysville Charter Academy of the Arts in Marysville, Los Angeles High School of the Arts in Los Angeles, Gardena High School in Gardena and Pioneer Technical Center in Madera.

Visit www.youtube.com/ user/WhiteGoldISWhiteGold to watch the finalists’ videos and vote.