First Mount Si, next Hollywood: Young filmmakers in festival
May 26, 2010
By Laura Geggel
Five Mount Si High School students competed in a 48-hour film contest. The students — Xury Greers (left), Ben Luna, Cody Furulie, Baylee Sinner and Jacob Shroades — made a three-minute movie, ‘Gnip Gnop,’ which spells pingpong backwards. Photo by Joe Dockery
Five Mount Si High School students got the test — and treat — of a lifetime. The National Film Festival for Talented Youth, for filmmakers 22 or younger, invited them to film a three-minute video in honor of the festival’s first showing of action sports movies, sponsored by Nike 6.0.There was only one catch: The students had to write, film and edit the entire video in only 48 hours.
Tara Zumpano, coordinator of the 48-hour film project, invited students from Ballard, Bellevue, Franklin and Mount Si high schools to participate, because they are all known for their film programs.
“We’ve had kids from Mount Si submit films to our festival before, so we thought we would give them a fair shot,” Zumpano said.
She invited students from all four schools to come to the kick-off night April 29. They were called on stage at the Cinerama in downtown Seattle, where they heard the requirements, which were a little out of the ordinary.
Each film had to involve some type of athleticism, have two props — blue butcher paper and cardboard — and use the line of dialogue, “Live stoked.”
“At first, I thought it was going to be kind of hard with all of the props,” sophomore Cody Furulie said. “But we sat and talked about what we wanted to do for the extreme sport and tried to make it a comedy.”
The students stayed up late Thursday night and got waivers for missing school on Friday, so they would have the full 48 hours.
“In a way, they were doing schoolwork the whole day,” Mount Si technology teacher Joe Dockery said. “They were writing scripts early in the morning. They shot until late in the evening.”
At first, the group of five — Furulie, Xury Greers, Ben Luna, Baylee Sinner and Jacob Shroades — divided the positions, assigning roles of screenwriter, director and editor to each other. But they worked so well together on all aspects of the film, they decided to allow more fluidity.
“After that, we kind of decided we should all do editing, directing and filming,” Furulie said.
They wrote a screenplay about a teenager who is trying to find his true calling in life. It turns out he’s a natural at pingpong, but he needs the help of a hobo, played by Greers, to help him succeed.
The students worked nonstop, barely stopping to sleep, for their film “Gnip Gnop,” pingpong backwards. At first, they worried three minutes would be too much. Once they edited it, they realized they had too much footage.
“That’s always hard, cutting out things you like,” senior Jacob Shroades said.
On the final day, the students turned in their film — amid computer difficulties — and sat in a full theater packed with about 600 people.
“I walked on like three red carpets,” Shroades said, describing how he felt like a celebrity filmmaker at the screening.
“At first, I was really nervous, because I didn’t know what the audience was going to think of it,” Furulie said. “During the screening, I was happy people were laughing at the parts that were funny. I was so relieved people liked it and that it was done.”
After the audience and judges voted, Ballard won the competition, but Zumpano praised Mount Si’s video for its comedy.
“I thought it was hilarious. I love the acting in it, especially Xury’s character,” Zumpano said. “I really like the way they incorporated the prop and the line of dialogue.”
Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.
Comments
Got something to say?
Before you comment, please note:
- These comments are moderated.
- Comments should be relevant to the topic at hand and contribute to its discussion.
- Personal attacks and/or excessive profanity will not be tolerated and such comments will not be approved.
- This is not your personal chat room or forum, so please stay on topic.
