The freshmen, though with almost no experience in high school filming, decided to take on the 2003 movie, School of Rock for their Night of the Stars (NOTS). Putting in much of their own vacation time to create a video with which they hope to impress the high school.
In the movie, Austin Rurik portrays Jack Black as Dewey Finn, a 30-year-old who gets himself kicked out of a band, and almost his apartment for not paying his portion of the rent. But when he receives a call at his apartment for Ned (the friend) to teach an elementary school class as their substitute, he fakes a voice and takes the job.
Finn ends up training the fifth grade to become a rock band to win the Battle of the Bands competition.
Along with hopes of triumphing at the Jan. 24 awards ceremony, the freshmen relish the experience and fun of their first project.
“It would be nice to win,” Dolly Mizner said. “But I think it’s just fun being able to work with my friends. I am Katie the bass player in the movie, and I find it so funny that Kyser plays the fashion stylist! We’ve had a lot of good ideas and we have the soundtrack.”
The director of the movie, Kyser Anderson, worked many days at filming as well as acting (Billy the fashion stylist), directing and helping the class to work as a team.
I decided to take this on because I like flming,” Anderson said. “And this is for The Feather too. The movie was pretty good, we could probably make it better if we had more time though.”
Anderson’s experience in video productions has helped him focus not only on filmmaking, but on the comedy aspects of the movie.
“My favorite part is probably when the principal comes and everyone goes crazy and hides all the instruments,” Anderson said. “It’s like chaos in the room!”
Ned Schneebly, played by Josh Hopper, joined because his older brother (Carson, ’08) acted in several before him and he hoped to enjoy the same experience.
“I joined cause my brother used to do it a lot,” Hopper said, “and I watched his and thought it would be cool to do it. Austin called me up and said, ‘Dude, we need you.’ So I joined. And after that I enjoyed making the video because of the music. I’ve got to spend a lot of time with friends.”
The freshman class filmed in several places including Ground Zero, Room 623 and at Rurik’s house.
Despite the freshmen’s ambition for the awards, they anticipate a senior victory.
“I think the seniors will do really good because they have Mitchell Calisch and Andrew Rurik,” Anderson said. “And they’re really good at film making. But we could get second place.”
For more information on NOTS, read the Jan. 20 article, NOTS to produce ‘star-struck evening or the Jan. 19 article, Seniors pursue NOTS immortaliy.