Gibson Southern’s Film Literature class recently started working on a new project: making a short film. The genre selected for the films was horror.
“They are creating an original story, then turning it into a working screenplay,” Film Literature teacher Ian Gamroth said. “They are putting together a production plan, then actually producing this short film that should be about five minutes.”
The students are responsible for both writing and directing their own film, as well as choosing who acts in it.
“It’s not a group project, but they can ask friends, relatives, whoever to be a part of it in whatever way they want,” Gamroth said.
Currently, most of the students are still in the writing process of their film. The deadline for the project is Dec. 15. Until then, the students are able to work at their own pace.
“In the writing process we’ve seen a lot of collaboration, especially helping work out specific details within stories,” Gamroth said. “We talked about the pros of having a writer’s room and using that workshop technique.”
Senior Cora Kellough mostly finished her script and will soon work on the actual film.
“For my film, it’s called ‘Behind the Screen,’” Kellough said.
Kellough’s film is about a journey of grief, with the main character dealing with different personal issues, as well as trying to find out the truth of what happened to her best friend who moved.
“I’ve loved writing the script more than actually thinking about doing the film,” Kellough said. “My favorite part has been coming up with different perspectives for each character.”
Another student working on his film is junior Sawyer McKimmy. McKimmy began working on this project at the end of the first quarter and filmed a small segment of his short film.
“It’s fun,” McKimmy said. “I used to do ‘A Road With Never Ending Turns’ with Kyle Goldman, so I got some experience with that.”
McKimmy’s film is about a bioremediation specialist cleaning a crime scene to find something that was not expected.
This is the first year that the Film Literature class is doing this project.
“This is something that I’ve wanted to try to see how it works,” Gamroth said. “I’m taking input from them on what’s working and what’s not, because next year I would like to do a collaborative short film instead of individual ones.”
In this class, the students are learning about all of the different aspects of filmmaking and scripting to ready themselves for this project.
“The whole point of this is to look at film like it is literature,” Gamroth said.“You’re looking at it as a visual representation of the written word and how you use the tools within the filmmaking industry.”
The students watched several different movies to analyze them and learn more about the filmmaking and script writing process.
“I love how we talk about the camera angles and how lighting works for films, especially how each angle and lighting affects the mood and how the story is portrayed,” Kellough said.
While the students get the chance to watch fun movies, they are learning the skills needed to make films.
“It’s a good class,” McKimmy said. “I definitely recommend taking Film Lit.”
After finishing and turning in all of the films, the class is planning a film festival day where they watch each other’s films.
