Finn Royer’s passion for making movies while in high school is receiving national acclaim.
The former Cedar Crest High School student, who graduated on Friday, was recently selected as the Student Television Network’s Student of the Year for demonstrating leadership, excellence and creativity behind and away from the camera.
“I was incredibly surprised and I was very, very honored by it,” said Royer. “They made me join a Zoom call and there were a few members of the STN crew on it, I guess you could say, who broke the news to me. It was a really exciting moment. All of my teachers were there – Mr. Wouri and Mr. Hassler – and my two best friends and film crew buddies Logan (Balmer) and Reed (Fretz) were there, too.”
While some awards programs honor individual achievement over a calendar year, STN’s program recognizes a senior for their contributions during the entirety of their high school career.
Staying true to its roots, the top senior for this particular honor must compile a video resume for the judges among other criteria that’s considered for the SOOY award. A STN official told LebTown there were 14 entries this year.
“The whole application is more about my entire career as a high school filmmaker,” said Royer. “The whole application consisted of a resume with film-specific accomplishments on it as well as an essay I had to write, letters of recommendation and a reel of my film highlights from my high school career.”
It seems appropriate that Royer would save his best work for his senior year as he’s improved his craft over the past four years. “I probably made my best films this year and accomplished the most with my film-making career this year,” he noted.
Shonda Tindall, outreach and engagement manager for STN, said Royer best exemplified the three criteria the organization seeks in selecting its top student annually.
“Finn brings an exceptional well-rounded blend of leadership, excellence and creativity,” said Tindall.
Since the award is unique because it recognizes a student’s accomplishments over four years and their filmmaking talents, LebTown asked Royer to name one he’s made for each of those attributes that best represent why he was chosen for this honor.
“For leadership, I would probably say ‘Avarice’ because that one was a huge, huge, like, monumental task to take on. I served as director of that one and wrote a large part of the script,” he said. “Doing a period film was a challenge I never attempted before as the leader, the director of the film, and getting locations, setting up, choosing costumes, scripting, cinematography, all of that. I had a lot of help obviously, but I think that film showed my leadership the most.”
“Avarice” is a pinnacle in Royer’s high school film-making career.
LebTown exclusively profiled the film prior to it being entered into competition at the STN national convention this year and again when the film was tapped for Best Art Direction.
The art award is one that Royer’s high school film instructor Cody Hassler told LebTown in March is “a cool award” because it is “an effort award.”
“They went the extra hundred miles to make a set that looked like a Hollywood movie and they got rewarded for that,” Hassler said then.
When it comes to selecting which film highlights excellence, Royer demonstrated that bigger isn’t always necessarily better. The movie he picked for this category, which runs 60 seconds, was made in October 2023 during the first part of his senior year in high school.
“I think one of our most complete films that we’ve made is actually the shortest one we’ve made, which is ‘What Lies Below,’” said Royer. “That is our horror short film that won the 2023 Horrofest competition, which was with STN as well. And that one, I think, showed my excellence and the crew’s because it was, it’s just probably our tightest, most effective short film.”
Royer jumped to his junior year and a film he produced himself to highlight creativity. Interestingly enough, the title of that film drips with double entendre.
“For creativity, I think for that one I could justify the creativity of all the films,” said Royer. “However, I think the one film that comes to mind is the one I made at the end of last school year that’s called ‘Me, Myself, I, and All the Rest.’”
Royer selected that film because he feels it has a “very interesting and original story.”
“I think the story behind it is really cool because I wanted to enter it into one of the spring film competitions and I was trying to get people to help me film a short film idea,” recalled Royer. “But no one was available at all, so I decided to create a short film by myself and I played all of the characters. It’s about this guy who gets stuck inside his own imagination, so I feel it is interesting and creative. It shows creativity because I was able to make it without any help whatsoever.”
The STN also recognizes students for their contributions beyond the camera.
Tindall praised Royer for his community volunteerism. (Part of STN’s mission is to empower future storytellers.)
“His leadership is exemplified as a founding member and co-director for the Mount Gretna International Film Festival, showcasing his commitment to fostering a vibrant film culture in his community and beyond,” said Tindall. “Finn has also participated in many service-oriented activities, such as volunteering his time as a buddy to special-needs students in his high school, reading to elementary school students and spending time raising funds for the American Heart Association.”
Tindall noted that Royer is a student who has filled nearly every role when making movies.
“He excelled as a director, writer, producer, editor and actor,” she said. “In addition to his numerous accolades, Finn has been commissioned to produce content for the Mount Gretna Outdoor Art Show and a documentary for a local nature advocacy group.”
Hassler told LebTown in an email that he’s not surprised Royer would be recognized with this honor.
“Young filmmakers across the country are getting better and better. It is such an honor to know that we have been working with THE BEST filmmaker in the STN program,” wrote Hassler. “Huge film programs from all over the country recognize Finn and our program from right here in Lebanon which is amazing. I know this sounds cliche but I’ve learned just as much if not more from Finn over the years.”
Hassler dove deeper into why he felt Royer was selected.
“He has to be one of the most creative people I’ve ever met. He pours his heart into each and every project that he takes on, and the result is typically something incredible,” he wrote. “Finn is a student that spends time where it counts. He is meticulous in his planning, during the production, and in post-production. He’s a student of film. He simply loves the craft.”
One attribute, which can’t be taught in the classroom, is also applicable to Royer, according to Hassler.
“Best of all, he’s got an infectious personality. He treats everyone with dignity and respect. It shows with his production crew, Cut Thru Productions,” he wrote. “This crew works together on everything, winning national awards while having the time of their life. This is a credit to Finn’s ability to direct both a film and a crew.”
Hassler added that in his senior year, Finn won STN’s spring nationals for best comedy, their Horrofest award, STN’s fall Nationals for best drama, Best Art Direction for STN Film Excellence (“Avarice”), and placed second in both short film and movie trailer at the onsite convention. Furthermore, Royer was accepted into the STN Honor Society, and he presented at the national convention.
The last film that Cut Thru Productions, which consists of Royer, Balmer and Fretz, made together was the most ambitious during their Cedar Crest filmmaking careers.
“Cut Thru Chronicles” is an hour-long, multi-genre, comedy-heavy love letter to the Cedar Crest student body that utilizes Saturday Night Live-esque sketches woven together to tell its story.
The film was shown on a recent Friday evening to about 115 students in the high school auditorium along with other short productions the film crew made over the past few years.
“It (the film) was seriously a highlight of my high school career and honestly a highlight of my entire life,” said Royer. “I mean, it was super, super cool to see ’cause I never had that experience before, to see all of my films, all of the Cut Thru films that we made this year, viewed like they were meant to be – in a theater with an audience on the big screen.”
Royer added that particular experience was amazing.
“It was the coolest experience, you know, looking back at the crowd and seeing them engaged and laughing and having a good time watching our films,” added Royer. “It made it all so, so worth it, really. It was an amazing experience.”
Royer, like nearly all high school seniors this time of year, has bittersweet and mixed emotions. There’s sadness that high school is ending but also excitement for what lies ahead.
Royer will enter Schreyer Honors College at Penn State this fall as a film major.
“It definitely is bittersweet,” he said. “But I’m very excited, like I said. I’ve created a really special bond and relationship with my teachers here at Cedar Crest as well as, you know, my friends and my show group and that coming to an end means we really had our final time together and our big moment together during our showing last Friday. So that was a bittersweet moment knowing that the Cut Thru Crew (aka Cut Thru Productions) was coming to an end. But as much as it is sad, it’s exciting for me to move on and go to the next level.”
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