Junior Molly Donnell anxiously sits while the camera is getting ready to roll for her part, students this year in Mr. Perry’s Humanities class were given the task of recreating a movie that has already been made and adding their own spice to it. Junior Molly Donnell is recreating the movie “The Visit”.
“Our movie is called ‘The Visit’ and it’s about two siblings who go to their grandparents house and then the grandparents start acting weird except there is a huge plot twist and it’s really suspenseful.” Each class is given the opportunity to choose which movie they want to do and how they want to recreate it. Mr. Perry gives them the opportunity to choose what topics and movie they want to recreate as long as it is school appropriate. Sophomore Andrew Roese is doing the movie ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’, and it is about the struggles of a deformed character named Quinnie who tries to make friends and get around in the city. Mr. Perry uses this project to get his students familiar with film making and how important it is.
“I want the students to learn about the process by which films are transformed from idea to celluloid as well as the specific role each member of a film crew plays in the movie production process.”
There are three total movies being made for this project, “Shane,” “The Visit” and “The Hunchback of a Notre Dame,” The three movies have different plots and ways each student can connect with the stories, but the one thing that they are most excited about is adding a twist to the plots
“ I’m super excited about the movie because it has given me the opportunity to learn more about the movie production cycle and given me the experience to make up scenes when we couldn’t recreate the original scenes,” Donnell said. Mr. Perry is also very supportive about the students adding their own parts to the movies
“My students come up with the ideas for the movie they want to recreate and I review them. If they are school appropriate and realistic in terms of our abilities to re-create them we develop the storyboard and shoot the film.”
To make all three movies students have to devote some of their time to the weekends and after school. This seems like a lot of work but the finishing result is what Mr. Perry looks forward to.
“I enjoy seeing the smiling faces of my students as they see themselves on the big screen during movie premiere night.”