Senior Jhiylin Vega and his team are waiting and waiting as team after team is called during the State UIL Young Filmmaker Festival award ceremony. Heart pounding and thoughts filled with hope and dread, only 2 spots left for the title. Then the announcer finally said into the microphone, “Second place goes to: “The Duality of Ego and Humility,” and all worries washed away for Vega and his peers as they walked up to the stage to collect their silver medals.

Vega and his team are the first students in Azle history to qualify and medal in UIL Filmmaking.

Jhiylin Vega wrote, directed, edited and starred in his film “The Duality of Ego and Humility,” but he didn’t do it alone. He received help from junior Harley Boyce (Camera Operator), senior Brianna Perez (Camera Operator), senior Seth Webb (Lighting and Sound Technician), senior Dunessca Gutierrez (Lighting Operator) and senior Jayden Fabela (Audio Operator). On Feb. 26, Jhiylin, Harley and Brianna traveled to the Austin ISD Performing Arts Center for the competition, where Vega and his team became silver medalists.

“It started out as playing video games with my friends, and we were like oh let’s start a YouTube channel,” Jhiylin Vega said, “And I just started making little funny videos. They were horrible, but time went on, and I kept doing them, and it gave me a familiar sense of how to video edit.”

Starting out as a silly joke turned into a growing passion for filmmaking and video production. After juggling basketball and video production, Vega had to make a challenging choice of quitting the basketball team to focus more seriously on filmmaking.

“As they were announcing the rankings, it was—I know we are getting top three and then they announced third, and it was the one we were most worried about being the competitor,” Junior Harley Boyce said. “Then we were like, OK, now we are top two.”

Jhiylin and his team breaking history for Azle’s A/V program set a new milestone, only to grow and learn from. With hard work and diligence, Jhiylin gained experience outside of video production and connected with people with the same passion.

“It felt surreal because even the state champions that won, they came up to me and they were like, ‘Hey, you made Ego and Humility,’” Jhiylin said, “and in the moment, it was almost like I was on the red carpet, and it was surreal.”

Becoming a UIL State silver medalist, Jhiylin and his team made an unforgettable moment to share with families and the rest of Azle’s A/V program. Working hard, improving his video production skills, submitting videos to competitions every year since his sophomore year—the third time’s the charm.

“It felt like I built some great connections, met some great people, and it was just amazing to see three years of dedication in my life, all placed on a big screen,” Jhiylin said. “Everybody appreciated it and valued it more than I even did.“