Kids and Heroes

Monday, December 20th, 2010 @ 5:19 pm

drama, high school, narrative, short, teenagers

Breakfast Club-esque short film project in junior year

Growing up, I latched onto storytelling as any kid, but film became the medium with which I could contribute to that field when I saw the original Star Wars trilogy. Stereotypical, I know, but it’s what happened. I loved them. I still love them. They’re brilliant. They’re wonderful.

Star Wars and the discovery of Star Wars fanfilms opened my mind to the possibilities of film and visual storytelling, and the possibility that I could make my own. I could be a part of that universe. From making props to writing movies, I was all about fanfilm ideation for a good year or so before I realized that with any traveling, I could find any location, and with any camera, I could shoot that location and tell a story within it. That opened up the whole world of film to me, and I began coming up with ideas left and right, writing short synopses and full screenplays all the time. All the while working away at my Star Wars homage piece, and finishing the script about 3 years after I’d started it.

Of course when I read it now, it seems juvenile, laughable, but I remember the feeling I got when I wrote it, when I realized I was capable of making something. And that was probably the biggest influence on my creative career of all. Given the opportunity, I can make something awesome, and frankly, why the hell not?

Kids and Heroes was my first serious short film project that I did for a Digital Editing course in junior year of high school. Now, to me, it’s trite and predictable, and of course as the creator I’m going to be more critical than other people, but in essence, I think it’s still a very valuable piece. It’s my transition from fun- or spare-time filmmaker to someone dedicated to their practice, making it their own form of expression. And when I showed it at the end of the semester premiere, it blew people away. :D