Students ready for "action"

Class rolls film on movie-making project

WASILLA — Local seventh-graders are getting a taste of the big-time, or at least a glimpse into the world of movie making, thanks to an elaborate class project.

Students in Cindy Simon's Wasilla Middle School class are making the movie of Rod Serling's "Back There," with virtually every single aspect of movie making — actors, film crews, make up, etc. — covered by students.

The project has opened the eyes of students who said they never realized what goes into making a film.

"I've never done anything like this before. I've used a video camera, but never to make a real movie," said Suzanna Caldwell, who was part of the documentary crew, which is filming "behind the scenes" on the set.

With Sony Digital 8 camcorders in hand, 19 students took to the Colony Inn in Palmer for shooting last week. They were also scheduled to film a jail scene, a cabin scene and several outdoor scenes before wrapping up the filming process.

Each scene required the make-up artist to get the actors ready, the actors to change into different costumes and the film crews to be ready to roll tape at a moment's notice. The demanding schedule was necessary because the class had a day and a half to do all the filming.

All 30 students in the class will participate in the editing process.

"We will be teaching them how to use the I-Movie program and they will get some instruction on a MIDI machine to make their own sound effects for the movie," Simon said. "At the end of the project, every student will have a movie they made in class."

Of the 19 students who are part of the filming process, there are 12 actors, three camera people, three documentary crew members and one make-up artist.

The film is being "directed" by ELP teacher Grant Olson, who is certainly no stranger to the world of acting — he is the artistic director for Valley Performing Arts as well.

"What a great experience for these students," he said. "They are very receptive to learning the procedures, and I think it gives them a great inside look of what takes place to turn out the finished product."

Olson has helped the students in every aspect — from filming and acting to pre-production work such as developing a scene before the camera ever gets plugged in.

Trevor Thomas is the lead actor in the movie, and even though he is only a seventh-grader, he is very familiar with being in front of an audience and performing. His confidence shows as he moves through the scenes. He is in every scene but one.

"I've done a couple of plays in the last year. I've been doing it since I was in second grade with my class," Thomas said. "But acting for a camera instead of being in front of a live audience is a lot different.

"When you are on stage, you have to position yourself for the audience," Thomas explained. "But here, you have to position yourself based on where the camera will be and what angle they are trying to film."

Thomas said learning all his lines is not that tough — but it is time-consuming.

"On top of everything else I have to do with school, it takes some time," he said.

Each scene required three or four different angles, which required the actors and film crew to repeat them that many times.

If the scene was not perfect, Olson gave the directive to reshoot it. On some scenes, he had to shout "ACTION!" up to 10 times. The number of times a scene was shot amazed some of the students.

"I never knew how much film was used and how many times you have to do it," Spencer Ladner, another documentary crew member, said. "Now when I watch a movie the scenes will be more interesting because I know what went into making them."

With filming complete and the editing process started, Simon is hoping to have the project wrapped up by spring break.

Each student will get a copy of the movie upon completion.

Once the movie is complete, the students' jobs may not be, however.

"I was thinking about maybe having the students go into other classrooms and show the video, and then talk about how they made it, what all was involved, and that kind of stuff," Simon said.

"They could end up teaching about what they've already learned by making the video," she added.