Janella Brand - Holy Innocents' Episcopal School

FINE ARTS
Art And Technology
Partner Up
H.O.P.E.
by Katie Keith, Carolina Saca,
Katie Tiller and Mary Weaver.
A grieving teen stares silently out the
window of his bedroom. Smokestacks
belch pollution into a lead-colored sky.
A fireman talks about his goal of being
of service to others.
The depth and eloquence of student
films submitted to the Upper and Middle
School Film Festivals this year show that
our students have a
lot to say, and the
medium of video is an
expressive vehicle with
which to say it.
“Digital video
is the future of
communications,”
declared Middle
School English and Film
teacher Mr. David Gale,
addressing the crowd
that came to view the
videos submitted at the
1st Annual Middle School
Film Festival. Middle School
filmmakers certainly appear
to be catching on to the
art. Today’s desktop editing
software is within the reach of all computer
users with access to a video camera—a
far different scenario from the specialized,
expensive post-production houses of
the recent past. This allows Internet
users all over the world to contribute
constantly, coherently and usefully to
what’s on the Web, and these skills will
be highly effective in the marketplace,
as well. It became clear to teachers and
administrators at the Rowan Family Middle
School that HIES students should have
a voice in this media revolution, and the
skills to express it.
The theme for the MS Film Festival was
modeled after the work of Dr. Tim Tyson,
principal of Mabry Middle School. Mabry
students have gained world recognition
for their short films. Their digital media
content is shared with viewers all over the
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world on MabryOnline.org, as well as via
the iTunes store. During Tyson’s visit to
HIES in June 2007, MS History teacher
Gary Klingman, and David Gale quizzed
him extensively on how to orchestrate a
film festival. They decided to adopt the
theme, “Making Our World a Better Place”.
Sixteen teams of
student filmmakers came
forward when the Film
Festival was announced.
“Sixth and seventh
graders were at a major
disadvantage,” says
Klingman. “They didn’t
have enough computer
access. They could
research, script and
shoot their projects,
but they couldn’t get
them edited. This
should not be an
issue next year,
when everyone
has a laptop.” In
the end, though, all three
grades were represented. The videos that
made it to the final judging were Drunk
Driving, by Nick Andrist,
Mitchel Bassett, Trent
Martin, Harrison McCrorrie
and Ben Rousseau; Global
Warming, by Blake Barber,
Warner Ray and Edward
Vear; Think About What
You Eat, by George Dobbs,
Carter Holland and William
Mavity; and H.O.P.E.,
by Katie Keith, Carolina
Saca, Katie Tiller and
Mary Weaver.
H.O.P.E. won 1st
place in the 1st Annual
MS Film Festival. The
eighth grade, all-girl
team of filmmakers
observed that, “…
this opportunity has allowed us to
appreciate the great Americans who
serve our community. We are sending
out the message that a person can never
give up on hope.” The film’s interesting
camera angles, quick cuts and effects,
and footage from many different locations
made it a standout.
Sending out the message is the whole
point of film festivals like this, Klingman
points out. “When you are heard by one
person, that makes a difference. When you
are heard by ten people, it makes even
more of a difference. But imagine if you
are heard by 100 million people—what a
difference that would make!”
The submissions to the Upper School
Film Festival, held in late April, showed
clearly that students are absorbing
powerful aesthetic messages from their
widespread exposure to media--whether
it be television, movies or video games—
and that they know how to apply this
knowledge to their own creations. They
are also mastering the complex software
required to turn out a finished video
production.
The Upper School films tackled topics
ranging from athletic shoes to the
absurdity of
war. First Place
winner, A Loss, by
William Ward, Neil
Kimball and Alex
Herzog, depicted
a teen struggling
to overcome
the death of his
girlfriend. Ward’s
directing skills
were showcased in
this piece, as were
Kimball’s considerable
acting skills.
Second Place
winner was X-treme
Walking, by John
Mitchell, Jackson Davis and Ryan Cox.
The video was actually a commercial
depicting the marvelous acrobatic feats
possible for wearers of this athletic shoe.
The film made liberal use of clever special
effects and used a “man-on-the-street”
interview style that featured multiple Upper
School students and faculty.
Rachel and the Emo Boy, by Neil
Kimball, required Kimball to serve as both
director and actor—a task he found to be
quite difficult. The film was a theater of the
absurd story about a girl who thinks she is
having a bad day, until she meets a young
man whose day is infinitely worse. The
intense, well-written script was supported
by tight editing and interesting camera
angles.
Alex Fujimoto and John Aldridge’s
submission to the Festival, The Squid
and the Tsunami, employed the technique
of exporting sequences from the video
game Halo, editing them together and
recording a sound track. There was a
profound and poignant message buried in
the endless animated battles—that trivial
matters can result in huge, meaningless
wars. Considering the massive appeal
that video games hold in today’s market,
any animation or virtual set design skills
are going to be a meal ticket for these
students.
Filmmaker Spiros Stathoulopoulos,
guest speaker at the Festival, is the
director of PVC-1, a Cannes 2007 Festival
winner. PVC-1 has the distinction of being
shot entirely in one continuous take, a fact
of great interest to the HIES filmmakers.
Technology and art aside, the underlying
purpose of the Upper School Film Festival
was to raise funds for our sister schools in
Haiti. Student organizer, rising senior Lara
Sullivan, is satisfied that the Festival gave
voice to the significant skills held by these
HIES students, in addition to raising $600.
Think About
What You Eat.
by George Dobbs,
Carter Holland
and William Mavity
Drunk Driving
by Nick Andrist,
Mitchel Bassett, Trent Martin,
Harrison McCrorrie
and Ben Rousseau
Global Warming
by Blake Barber, Warner Ray
and Edward Vear
To view these films, visit the
News and Events section of
the HIES website and click on
MultiMedia Gallery.
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