Tween filmmakers rate star treatment

The three boys drew back in terror as a zombie lying behind a bookshelf grabbed for the nearest ankle. He was once a student sent to detention, the young man says in a gravelly voice – as was the skeleton behind them. The boys race down hallway after hallway and escape ... or did they?

A team of Prescott Junior High School filmmakers captured the horror of a detention no one can ever leave as one of five student productions premiered for friends and families at Student Film Screening Night on June 30, complete with popcorn.

The Stanislaus Union School District sneaked reading, writing and working together into artistic activities for about 600 elementary and junior high students in summer school programs that ran through June.

The classes included struggling and special education students, many of whom excelled, said drama and special education teacher David Braga. “They take a very big part in these shows. They’re just one of the kids,” he said, adding that he watched kids in special classes during the school year “blossoming.” There were tears when the classes ended, Braga said. “They got to be a part of something.”

The filmmaking class taught by Braga and English teacher John Coxford was offered at Prescott Junior High, drawing about 25 kids to try their hand at a dramatic video production.

“At first they think they’ll get to walk in and hit the record button,” Coxford said with a chuckle. Before hitting the button, however, students had to plan out a story, write the script, set the scenes, figure the camera angles and edit the footage.

Initially, students stared blankly back at him, unsure where to start. But when he sat them down at computers to write scripts, “the light bulbs went on,” Coxford said.

The writing assignment introduced kids to Google Docs, a collaborative online word processing program. Multiple users can type on the same page at the same time, a revelation to many students that cut scriptwriting time to a fraction of last year’s effort, Braga said.

Storyboards helped students pull the plot together. Cue cards helped students remember their lines. Journals tracked all the details. Professional terms and camera techniques made it serious, and knowing their families and friends would watch the finished product kept it important.

Typing on the computer ranked right up with her star turn in front of the camera, said student Semirah Gebreselassie. She went to Chrysler Elementary School before class to film younger students for her team’s documentary on the Stanislaus Union summer school program, which included an interview with Superintendent Britta Skavdahl.

“This is a fun, innovative way to infuse learning during the summer that allows students to retain better what they learned in their previous year and be ready to go the next year,” Skavdahl tells Gebreselassie in the film.

“I know the power that a good, quality summer program has for children, and we wanted to make sure our students have those opportunities,” she says.

Speaking at the screening, Skavdahl said the filmmaking class has been popular with junior high kids, but only a few dozen participated in summer classes last year. This year, she went to student leaders and took their advice on class topics. About 100 incoming seventh- and eighth-graders came this year.

Among them were horror film scary guy “Mr. Wrinkleman” Christian Navarro, an eighth-grader. Asked how he captured the breathy, threatening tone of a horror film star, Navarro said, “I went with the flow. I decided to go with the creepy voice and then Mr. Braga said, ‘Go with it!’ So I did.”

Brenna Steele and her group did a “dog-cumentary” on a dog grooming service. “We like dogs and we thought it would be interesting,” she said.

Another group tackled an ethical dilemma around a basketball championship, learning how to shoot sports footage along the way. “The theme was integrity,” said incoming seventh-grader Skylar Nguyen.

“She learned to be a team player and it let her advance her skills in what she loves,” said Nguyen’s mom, Thao Truong.

This story was originally published July 3, 2016 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Tween filmmakers rate star treatment."