Broadcasting club, Conquest Journal, broadcasts the latest news and are successful film competitors. They produce comedy, horror, action, drama and documentary films. They prepare for months for three competitions that they enter annually.

“(We’ve done) the Census 2020 video contests and they just finished working on the Better Business Bureau contest and the big one is the El Paso ISD film festival,” Conquest Journal sponsor Marisol Rivera said.

Since January, Conquest Journal has entered one competition and are working on two others.

“We just won one called the Census 2020 video contests,” Rivera said

They travel to different schools for the competitions.

“(The competition) is going to be hosted I believe (it starts) at Pebble Hills, then it will be at Bowie where they’re (going to) have the red carpet ceremony,” senior Cristian Crosse said.

Conquest Journal works hard to put these films together. They have a budget of $50,000.

“This year’s equipment budget was $50,000 with which we bought five new cameras, a switchboard, more audio equipment, it’s amazing,” Crosse said

Conquest Journal is committed to their films.

“Sometimes we have to make sacrifices, not with the money but time on props, clothing and other stuff you have to invest in,” Crosse said.

Through their film process, Conquest Journal faces many struggles.

“Sometimes we’ll be stuck in a very dry time when we can’t think of anything good so (we) look back to old people who were in Conquest Journal for inspiration but if not we’ll just do our best to come up with our stuff,” junior Cristian Beltran said.

The staff recognizes the advantages these competitions give for their future.

“For me it’s seeing different creators, filmmakers, directors who have grown from being independent to coming out as being one of the most successful directors/filmmakers in the field,” Crosse said.

The challenges Conquest Journal faces prepares the students for their future careers in film.

“Whenever I start something I want to finish it and do the best I can because I do eventually want to become a film creator in Hollywood,” Beltran said.