With their futures on their minds, many high school students seek experience through programs that may interest them for college. While most schools may not offer many programs or options for students hoping to pursue TV broadcasting or a similar career, fortunately for students at FHC, there are many opportunities for experience in this field. A major annual byproduct of the elective courses offered is the Film Festival. As a required final project, students make a 15-minute ‘movie,’ which is then broadcast to the school near the end of the school year.
Students are given complete creative freedom to construct their movie, with the cast, characters, plot, and script completely self-directed. Between horror, themes of historical events in combination with fast food, and even themes of grief, there is a plethora of genres, perfect for a wide variety of audience members.
Classes that involve real-life experience are some of the most popular electives at FHC and can be essential in aiding students to decide on a major towards the end of their high school career. One movie, directed and produced by senior Kristin Hotaling and titled Citizen Cane’s, follows a unique plot: it is inspired by the new addition of Raising Cane’s on 28th Street.
“I think it’s probably my favorite project I’ve ever done in a class, and I love that we get creative freedom,” Kristin said. “You see so many diverse stories and genres and groups of people who come together to put out a product that is shown to the entire school.”
The many variegated ideas that are broadcast make the Film Festival a unique experience, both for people involved in the making of the film and the audience members.
“Our movie is a play on a different movie from the 60’s, and the plot of our movie follows a group of bootleggers, similar to prohibition in the 1920s, except they are bootlegging Cane’s Sauce,” Kristin said. “The group of bootleggers is running from a federal agent who is chasing them down, and it incorporates a lot of themes from the mafia, family, and a lot of ideas from historical references.”
On the opposite side of the spectrum, a movie titled Birthday Bear, starring junior Leah Holser, follows a birthday girl who received a mysterious teddy bear from an incognito source.
“The plot is about a girl, and it’s her birthday, and she receives a bear from an unknown sender,” Leah said. “She then gets hunted, and it’s just about her figuring out how to save her birthday and get her life back to normal.”
As expected, the making of a movie involves large time commitments. With the project being introduced early in the first semester and wrapping up towards the end of the school year, students have substantial time to make a quality film.
However, with that being said, many of the movies with main ideas and themes, such as the ones explored in Citizen Cane’s or Birthday Bear, filming during school becomes unachievable. Instead, students have to work together within their groups to coordinate times to meet up and film outside of school. With this event being another item in addition to many high schoolers’ already hectic schedules, it can be difficult to coordinate with others.
However, due to the movie being student-produced, the level of involvement of each participant can be decided between group members. Because of many moving parts and components, senior Mady Scarlato was a very active member within her group and contributed many ideas.
“I starred in it, I filmed some shots, and I wrote the entire screenplay,” Mady said. “I would definitely say that Film Fest involves a lot of work outside of class, just because you have to coordinate with everyone’s schedules for when you can film, and the editing and filming processes are pretty big steps in putting it all together.”
Because there are many activities, extracurriculars, clubs, and classes offered at FHC that fall under the category of acting and film broadcasting, the lessons and ideas learned by students can help solidify career paths.
“I really like acting, I do theater, and so I knew I wanted to be an actress in the movie,” Leah said. “I think it’s just really cool that I get to learn about what all goes into making a movie.”
While there is a prerequisite course requirement in order to participate in the Film Festival, many sophomores or juniors may not have as much experience as the senior students participating for their second or third year.
“One piece of advice I would give is don’t be scared to try new things and don’t be scared to reach out to people to be in your movie,” Mady said. “You have to use a lot of creativity, and planning is a big part [of] the success of your film.”