Posted on www.kansascity.com Sun, Jan. 01, 2006
Lights! Camera! Confidence!
Students dream it, write it, act it and film it
By JOE ROBERTSON
The Kansas City Star
TAMMY LJUNGBLAD/The Kansas City Star
At Ladd Elementary School, pupil Jordan Franklin enjoyed his speaking role in the “Let’s Make a Movie” project. Videographer Karen Haney and producer Eric Keith (center) worked with Jordan and students including (from left) Tayana Bankston, Nia Spencer and Erin Nelson.
At Central Middle School, seventh-graders Stephan Turner (left) and Tantania Matthews checked on the soundtrack being recorded for a student movie.
On a recent visit to Ladd Elementary School, Red Echo Group CEO Eric Keith (center) got some third-graders pumped up and excited about the roles they were about to play in a student-scripted movie, as part of the “Let’s Make a Movie” program.
Fourteen-year-old Rachel Standifer, with dreams of acting, was an obvious choice.
Larnell Watson, 12, with scant desire to be involved in any kind of moviemaking, also needed this.
So thought Devon Robinson as she watched a dozen students in her urban after-school program chased onto an empty stage by a filmmaker who believes youths should be making movies.
Strike a pose! She remembers him shouting. Be angry! … Now beg! … Be excited!
This was just Eric Keith’s way of breaking the ice with the students at Kansas City’s Central Middle School. Inhibitions had to fall if they were to work as a team, creating, writing, acting and producing a piece of dramatic art.
She watched the students — the ones who wanted to be there and the ones who had not — laughing together in the cavernous theater.
“I said to myself, ‘This is going to be all right.’"
The collaborative experience that Keith imagined when his Red Echo Group started the project — called Let’s Make a Movie — was under way.
“We wanted to create a learning tool for kids at risk,” Keith said. “To teach life skills that enhance their careers as they go forward.”
Students like 12-year-old Shantell Wilson talked of the “crazy” pace, and the shiver you feel the first time “that camera is in your face.”
And they had no idea going in, she said, that the students would do it all — debating and voting on the story idea, creating the script, choosing their cast, reading and memorizing lines, operating the equipment.
“Everyone was spitting out ideas,” 13-year-old Asia Barnard said.
Robinson, who directs the Local Investment Commission’s after-school program at Central Middle, saw youths “coming out of their shell.” She saw teamwork, reading and writing skills, and growing confidence.
“What is a job interview but acting with a purpose?” she said. “You have to be confident. You have to own your stage.”
Everything about Let’s Make a Movie — whether the barked stage commands of its directors or the speed with which the founders launched and spread the program — has clipped along like an ambitious film project on a tight budget.
“We kind of dove in,” Keith said.
Keith, a 1992 graduate of Olathe South High School, formed the Red Echo Group in Los Angeles to support and encourage new artists in film and theater, then brought it with him when he returned to the Kansas City area two years ago.
He recalls that he “woke up one morning” in late summer 2004 with the idea that Red Echo should be reaching out to urban youths.
He and creative director David Huffman, a 1996 Raytown High School grad, piloted the program last summer. Now 11 staff members run programs at 11 Kansas City schools, three Olathe schools and other sites including the West Wyandotte Library and El Centro Inc. in Kansas City, Kan.
Not only are the students creating and acting out the scripts, they operate the microphones, digital cameras, sound mixing boards and lights. And it’s all done in several hours after school one day a week for four weeks.
“The kids make all the decisions,” Keith said.
Rachel and Larnell were among the team of students who produced “The Video Gamer,” about an unpopular student who is tricked into meeting a cheerleader and gains an unexpected friendship.
Shantell, Asia and Raven Lathen helped make “Disaster in Paradise,” which tells of unintended consequences of rumors spread during prom season.
Most of the students participate in other activities such as drill teams, sports, dance and modeling, they said. But nothing put them on the spot like making a movie.
“This really helped me to not be shy,” Raven said.
On filming day for “The Video Gamer,” Keith and Huffman sped the students along, spurring them into character.
When a group of friends were supposed to be dissing the main character, Keith said, “Ham it up. Take shots at each other.”
When the main character thought he had earned a date with the cheerleader, “Give us a little yeah,” Huffman said, pumping his fist. “Can you do that?”
Next comes dealing with fame and critics. The Local Investment Commission is putting the student work online at www.kclinc.org and planning a summer film festival.
It’s not easy watching oneself on film, the actors say.
“It can be embarrassing,” Asia said. “You had to be a totally different person. It would have been easier to do a reality show.”
First glance
-Filmmakers work after school with students in area school districts and other sites to guide them in writing, performing and producing short films.
-Some student films can be viewed at the Local Investment Commission Web site at
www.kclinc.org . Click on “Now playing: New LINC videos” and look for “Let’s Make a Movie” listings.
To reach Joe Robertson, call (816) 234-4789 or send e-mail to jrobertson@kcstar.com .
Posted 1/19/2006
