Student Film Fest Article

A very nice article came out in the Island's Weekly about the student film class I am a part of. We are putting on a student film fest tomorrow evening and working hard to put the program together. The students have some great stuff. I think you will be highly entertained! Hope to see you island folks there.

Lights, camera, action – Lopez students to premiere their movies at film festival

By Colleen Smith Armstrong

Dec 04 2007

Our island's blossoming filmmakers have been writing, shooting, and editing their own movies this fall as part of a "Digital Movie Making" class at Lopez School.

Middle and high school students are offering a film festival of their work on Thursday, Dec. 6 from 7-8:30 p.m. in Lopez Center. The evening is rated PG for "pretty good," and anyone interested in unique films created by our island's talented young men and women is encouraged to attend. Admission is by donation.

The class is a collaboration between the school and the Lopez Island Family Resource Center, which received a grant in 2006 for video cameras, computers, software, and tech support (provided by Sue Dumond) for the classroom. Greg Ewert taught a video class that year, and it was extremely popular with students.

The school later applied for and received a Best Buy grant, which enabled them to purchase two additional video cameras and a laptop for the existing arsenal of snazzy film equipment. Camp Nor'wester recently donated a Mac desktop computer that Dumond is in the process of upgrading. "The addition of this equipment has helped us out tremendously, as we do not have enough equipment for each individual student to work independently," she said.

This semester's class is led by teacher Huck Phillips with tech support each week from Dumond. The students primarily work in iMovie, though some of the more advanced students are starting to work in Final Cut Express. They are given assignments and either work individually or in teams to produce and edit their videos. They learn storytelling techniques, story-boarding, digital editing and production skills, and acting techniques. Phillips also has each student bring in films they like to critique for content and film technique.

"The students have responded pretty enthusiastically. It's clear that they enjoy the interactive and hands-on elements of this class. Also, making films can be a new outlet of creativity for them. It enriches their education by allowing them to tell more of their own story and be seen and heard in a different way -- almost like making music or other forms of art," said Phillips.

"Also, they pick up technical skills that they can put to use in their lives outside of school," he continued. "The editing skills that students learn to produce these films takes an immense amount of patience and focus -- a four-minute production may easily have four to six hours of time put into it during the editing phase. But with modern movie-making software these teenagers are able to produce a level of technical quality and special effects that were only found at a professional level a number of years ago."

At least one student in the current class plans to pursue filmmaking in college and is specifically looking to attend a film school. In addition to the school courses, Ethan Salter has taught a kid's summer workshop about filmmaking and a video class during Choice Week at Lopez School.

The Student Film Fest is being underwritten by Lopez Center. The students will present films from previous classes as well as from the current semester. The movies range from documentary format to fictional tales. Most fall into the two to five minute range with a few longer films.

"The students are excited to publicly show what they've been working on, so this should be a fun experiment," said Phillips.