The photo that the “Rumor Has It” film group is using for their program.

Film Festival Q&As 2023: Madi Evans

Film: Rumor Has It

Grade: Junior

What is the premise of your film?

Our film Rumor Has It, is sort of a play on Gossip Girl and Mean Girls along with a reality TV show twist. Our main character moves to Michigan from an all-girls private school in the South and is hit with a whole new high school experience with boys, parties, and lots of rumors. Throughout our movie, she has to figure out who’s spreading the rumors and why.

Without spoiling, what should the audience expect to see?

The audience should expect to see lots of drama as well as a little bit of comedy.

How did your group come up with the idea for your film?

To be honest, coming up with the initial concept was the hardest part. I think we kind of wanted to do a suspense/mystery sort of thing at one point, and there was a few other ideas we had that were in the same drama genre. In the end, [Rumor Has It] was really just the first idea we could all agree upon.

What has the planning and filming process looked like?

The planning, storyboarding, scriptwriting, and filming were all so tedious. It’s difficult to plan everything out in advance in a way that can be easily filmed in the future. Filming for the movie took an incredibly long time. It’s extra difficult because some of my team plays spring sports, so most of the filming had to be done in class; that is why we ended up choosing the movie we did because it could be easily filmed in school.

What’s been your favorite part about creating Rumor Has It?

My favorite part about creating Rumor Has It was most likely the storyboarding and scriptwriting. I love the preplanning because I feel like it’s a vital step in creating a great movie. It also allows me to have as much creative freedom as possible.

How did you choose the actors/actresses?

Our main character just moved to Michigan from the South, so we just thought of who we knew that can do the best Southern accent. For the rest of the casting, my team and I just grabbed our friends and people we thought viewers would think are funny to play the characters in our movie and that would be good at making people laugh.

What’s one word to describe your film?

The one word I would defiantly use to describe our film is dramatic.