In order to understand a diverse culture and a second language, the Chinese II class plans to improve their breadth of knowledge by filming a movie. The class will do so by translating dialogues in Chinese and filming a video in Chinese for a final project by the end of this school year.

Just like an actual Chinese movie, the participants must use and only speak in the most common form of dialect, Mandarin Chinese.

Mark Bennett, ’14, head writer of the script, looks forward to the making of the movie. He hopes to succeed and strive for the best.

“This is basically going to be our big and insightful project as many other academic classes require students to do every year,” Bennett said. “All of Chinese II and many from Chinese I will be involved in the movie and it is going to be fun.”

One of the main characters in the movie, Natalie Griffin, ’15, is committed to the filming. This is her second year taking Chinese class but the project is a brand new experience for her.

“I am excited although I know that it is going to be a lot of work but with the progress we are making I believe that we can finish the movie,” Griffin said. “With all my showy action scenes in the movie, I might need some practice doing stunts but I am sure that Mr. Harris will assist me.”

Chinese teacher Dan Harris, plans to supervise the movie and take pleasure in assisting the students. He believes that students are intelligent enough to make this happen.

“I am facilitating the translation and making sure that different words of Chinese collaborate together,” Harris said. “Students have decided that I should be a driver of a getaway van but any role I play, I am honored to be involved in this movie.”

The students will film the movie all by themselves. Harris is only willing to help in translating dialogues in appropriate Chinese.

“Speaking is the most important part of learning a new language,” Harris said. “This will certainly help students to improve their verbal skills because students actually have to speak in only Chinese.”

The movie involves an irony between a criminal group and a few police officers struggling to solve the conflict. More information and plots about the movie is still in process due to students’ busy schedule.

“I am leaving as much as possible to the students because I know that some students have iPads, great cameras and filming software,” Harris said. “I know that they are fully capable of doing this by themselves in terms of filming. I also plan on asking some gymnasts and martial artists that I know to assist them with technical action scenes.”

Students must commit time outside of school. Many scenes involve highly populated areas, so students have decided to film at River Park mall. In addition, the students believe that producing the movie will possibly take the entire school year because of translating, duration of the video and the difficulty of hard-core action scenes.

For more information, please contact Harris 559.259.5564.

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