by Leslie Feldman

Gwynedd Valley native Stephen Skeel, 21, has wanted to be a filmmaker since he saw “Star Wars” for the first time at eight years old and was blown away. Ever since then, he has been trying to recreate that magic, more recently as co-founder of 7 Wonders Cinema.

It all started in his school days at Chestnut Hill Academy (now SCH). “I chose CHA because it allowed for creative exploration unlike any of the other schools I visited while still providing an excellent traditional education,” explained Skeel. “Dr. Ellen Fishman-Johnson (SCH department chair of Arts and New Media at SCH) spearheaded the film program in the VidCast studio, which led to countless opportunities to improve my craft during high school.”

In 2013, during Skeel’s senior year at CHA, his short film, “A Good List,” produced with fellow-student, Harrison Tracy, won the narrative category’s top prize at the Greenfield Youth Film Festival, a forum for young filmmakers from the metropolitan Philadelphia region to collaborate, create and showcase their work while expressing their creativity through film.

Now students at New York University for film and television production, Skeel and Michael Ayjian, another Philadelphia area native and a graduate of Episcopal Academy, founded 7 Wonders Cinema, LLC, in 2015, which produces professional quality music videos, commercials, and narrative pieces in a timely and efficient manner. Based in Manhattan and Philadelphia, the company offers pre-production, production and post-production services.

“Our work has been featured on television, well-known blogs and shown in prestigious film festivals,” said Skeel. “7 Wonders Cinema has collaborated with accomplished professionals, including artists who have won MTV Movie Awards, Sundance Film Festival Awards and the Grammy Awards.”

For the second year in a row, Skeel and Ayjian have had their work screened at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY). Their music video, “Armen Paul — To The Moon and Back,” won the Audience Choice Award in the “Musical Masterpiece” category.

“One of NFFTY’s biggest sponsors is the travel company, Expedia,” said Skeel. “They offer the opportunity for any festival alumni to pitch a branded-content idea about their hometown for their ‘Sight UnScene’ series. We pitched a spot about Philadelphia! The challenge is to feature several destinations that might not appear on tour guide’s list. We wanted to do the project because it was a combination of two of our passions: filmmaking and Philadelphia. We are so excited that we got to represent Philly in this way, and it turned out to be a very special project.”

Skeel and Ayjian won a grant from Expedia — out of hundreds of contestants — to make “Philadelphia Sight UnScene.” The film, now featured on Expedia's website, highlights some of the City of Brotherly Love's lesser-known tourist treasures. Stephen pulled in the SCH robotics team to contribute to the film; they shot the stunning drone footage above the Schuylkill and boathouse row. The Expedia distinction also earned them an interview on NBC-TV10.

The Expedia project took Skeel and Ayjian over a month to complete because they were in New York for school and had to travel to Philadelphia every weekend and every off-day to get the production in motion. “At one point, we were even waking up at 5 a.m. in Philly, shooting until 4 p.m., and then hopping on a bus to catch a 6 p.m. class in Manhattan. It was very hectic, but that makes it exciting! It’s all worthwhile when you see the final project on screen.”

As for the future, Skeel and Ayjian both intend to graduate a semester early because 7 Wonders Cinema is taking off. Though their degrees are very important, they think of themselves more as “working-professionals who go to class” as opposed to “students.”

“We want to come back to Philly to build 7 Wonders Cinema because we want to continue to grow the film and commercial markets here,” said Skeel. “We are looking for sales agents to help 7 Wonders Cinema build relationships with large brands and national companies. We feel that we have demonstrated our abilities with the Expedia project, and it’s all about growing from there.”

The Expedia film can be viewed by going to www.7wonderscinema.com under “featured project,” or Google “Philadelphia Sight UnScene.”