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Date: 2/23/2023
SOUTHWICK — There was no red carpet, no spotlights, no glamorous outfits, but a recent film festival at Southwick Regional School did have something in common with the Academy Awards: it honored the year’s best films.
Each winner received a gold statuette, similar to the Oscar, called the Ramsie — named in honor of the ram that serves as the school’s mascot.
The school’s film festival showcased the work of 11 students in the Techniques in Filmmaking elective. They each wrote, filmed and edited a short movie without assistance from teacher Rachel Knowles.
Students self-nominated their films in 10 categories, with 120 high school students watching the films in late January and then voting for their favorites. Films ranged from an animated story about searching for love to Bigfoot in the school to a five-night representation of life at Southwick Regional School.
The film class began with also began by watching movies. At least once a week they viewed a variety of movies — comedies, musicals, dramas, horror and science fiction — to understand and analyze techniques they could apply to their films. Among the films were “The Matrix,” “Be Kind Rewind,” “Breathless,” “Ocean’s 11,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Psycho,” “Spider-Man into the Spider-verse,” “Singing in the Rain,” “Groundhog Day,” “Double Indemnity,” “Rashomon.”
“I tried to find a wide variety of films,” said Knowles, who has a bachelor’s degree in cinema and photography. “Some were selected because of their historical and cinematic contributions, others were chosen because I liked them or I thought students would like them. There was a lot of interest in horror films, so I made sure we analyzed ‘Psycho.’”
At the start of the class, Knowles sent home permission slips listing every possible film students might watch. The ones they actually watched was determined by the students’ questions and desires.
“They really drove which films we watched,” she said.
Awards presentations were made the day after the film festival. Wyatt Baker, a senior, struck gold with four awards — best picture, best editing, best sound design and best cinematography — for his film, “Five Nights at SRS.”
Baker said he took the class because he likes movies.
“I wanted to learn more about movies. I thought this class would be a good opportunity,” he said.
Baker added that although the course wasn’t too challenging for him, it did make him more creative.
“The biggest challenge was coming up with an idea for a movie and using certain techniques when filming.”
Baker’s inspiration came from “Double Indemnity”: “It was an older movie, but I enjoyed the dark atmosphere with the black and white film noir elements it used,” he added. “I didn’t shoot mine in black and white, but there were definitely parts of it that influenced me.”
When focus shifted to work on their films, it took students about a month to write scripts, create storyboards, then shoot and edit their films. Most students used their cell phones to shoot the films, then used an online program called WeVideo for editing.
Chloe Phillips’ favorite genre is horror movies. “Psycho” inspired her to make her horror film, “Thursday at the 14.” She didn’t win any awards, but Phillips learned about numerous techniques used by filmmakers.
“It was all the little details and stuff that most people don’t know, like camera angles, panning into different scenes and using special settings for lighting,” said the sophomore.
Phillips also discovered that writing a movie script can be challenging.
“I kept changing my idea so writing the script took a long time. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for actual scriptwriters who write all kinds of detail and then have to scrap an idea,” she said.
One of the first things Jace Turgeon learned about filming was the 180-degree rule: a basic guideline allowing the audience to visually connect with unseen movements happening around and behind the immediate subject.
“I tried to use the 180 rule correctly in my film, ‘Jeorge’s Bizarre Adventure,’ which was based on a show I watch, ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.’ I made it into my own idea, incorporated the school into it and used my friends as actors,” said the senior, whose film was voted the fan favorite.
Turgeon said the class changed how he watches TV shows and movies: “I’m always looking for little things I learned in class. Understanding what goes into making different shots to make these movies is incredible.”
Sage Hobbs-Paton has acted in the school’s drama club, but took the filmmaking class to expand her theatrical experience.
“It’s a big jump from acting to actually writing your own script,” said the junior, whose movie was called “A.I. Takeover.”
“I ‘ve been around acting enough to understand a little bit about how it works. But it’s definitely a big change to go from being on the stage to being in front of or behind the camera,” she added.
Editing took longer than she expected.
“It was the longest part. I added noises, interruptions by robots and other special effects,” Hobbs-Paton explained.
Senior George Kimball, whose movie was a love story called “Best Bigs: The Story of How Jeorge (with a J) and Bigfoot Met,” found the class challenging and fun.
“I was never really interested in filmmaking or the technology aspect of it. But I liked learning about how films are made and all the techniques used It was cool to learn the history of films and how they’ve changed and advanced over the years,” he said.
Winners of the 2023 Southwick Regional School Ramsies were: