As graduation approaches, the senior class faces the last events of their high school career, including the winter formal event Night of the Stars (NOTS). Each year the four classes are required to make a movie, which are shown on the night of the event and awarded titles such as “Best Movie” or “Best Actress” or “Parents’ Choice”. With one final shot to claim some of these titles, each year’s graduating class does their best to produce the best film of their time in high school.

Last year, the senior class of 2013 swept seven of ten awards from the competition, leaving the remaining three awards to the sophomore classand knocking this year’s graduating class out of the running. Now, with the class of 2013 having graduated, the class of 2014 has their main competition out of the way and the greatest opportunity of their high school career to emerge victorious in the contest.

Co-director and writer Mark Bennett, ’14, has wanted to write and produce his own movie since the first time he was involved in the Night of the Stars, but was unable to get the idea approved by the class because of the difficulty of writing an original film.

“I?ve had the idea for a NOTS movie about NOTS ever since freshman year,” Bennett said. “I could never think of a good idea until last year, though, when I came up with the idea for a NOTS-themed road trip movie. I pitched it, and the class liked it, but didn?t vote on it because they felt an original movie was too ambitious for junior year.”

Bennett has enjoyed writing his own film, a comedic story of two couples’ trip to NOTS and the difficulties and obstacles they face along the way, because he does not feel pressure from the audience to include certain elements of a replicated film, giving him license to depict characters and scenes as he desires.

“The movie is titled, We’ll Get There If It Kills Us, and it?s an original concept,” Bennett said. “It?s about two couples who car pool to NOTS and run into severe complications. It?s been really fun to write because I have complete freedom to come up with my own scenarios and jokes because I don?t have to please the fans of some other movie.

The senior class first chose to create their own version of the popular film The Pink Panther, but due to the complexity of the script, they were forced to stop production of this film and start something else.

“The original plan was to do The Pink Panther, but they ran out of time to shoot all the stuff they had written,” Bennett said. “Then I came on board and started writing while we filmed. One of our leads just dropped out due to a schedule conflict, so now we have to reshoot all of his stuff which thankfully isn?t much. Oh, and at the time of this writing we have four days until the deadline.”

Although the project was initially in the hands of another senior director, it eventually was handed to Bennett and to Jared Franz, ’14, the original assistant videographer. Franz was not intending to become the co-producer of the project, but because of the lack of leadership with this film, he decided to step up with Bennett and direct.

“Initially someone else was in charge of the NOTS movie and I said I would be willing to help out as needed,” Franz said. “Because it’s my first year here, I didn’t want to take on anything I knew nothing about. However the original person wound up becoming stressed out and handing off the project to me a week before our deadline.”

As the film’s new director, Franz knew he needed to act fast in choosing another movie and enlisting the help of another senior who had experience with videography and time to co-produce a film.

“I knew that with such little time it would be impossible to remake an amazing movie,” Franz said. “Someone told me then that Mark had an original film he had been wanting to do for years, so I thought, ‘Hey, lets give him a shot.’ Once we decided the movie we started rolling on the filming right away.”

Bennett and Franz have made considerable progress with the time that is left until NOTS, but they still have a lot to do before the film is completed.

“It?s going fine, considering what little time we have,” Bennett said. “I?d say that there are things I wish had already happened. For example, I wish we?d filmed more than we have, because it?s gonna be a rush to film in time. I would say that we are behind, but we?re working double time to make the best movie we can and I think it?s going to turn out fine.”

The lead characters will be seniors Natalie Ruiz, Franz, Bobby Christopher and Katie Uribe, but there are many supporting roles, one of which will be played by English teacher and journalism advisor Greg Stobbe. Although their personalities have been exaggerated or altered to make them more enjoyable, they will all play themselves. Ruiz and Franz will star as one of the couples, with Christopher and Uribe playing the other.

“I am playing an introverted “nerd” girl who is on her way to NOTS with her date who is also kind of nerdy,” Ruiz said. “They play the more toned down couple of the two.”

The filming crew has faced a few difficulties in filming, besides the obvious deadline, including problems with the video camera’s microphone as well as conflicts with the schedules of those involved with the movie. However, Ruiz remains hopeful that they will pull off a high-quality film.

“It has been hard to find a day to film all together and we’ve been having audio issues with the camera,” Ruiz said. “However, I think our chances of winning are high because of the originality of the script. I think it’s going to turn out great.”

Although the class of 2014 has only one award under their belt for their entire high school career, given to senior Viviana Hinojosa in 2012 for Best Supporting Actress, Bennett is sure this year’s movie will surpass all of the movies of previous years and bring in some awards for the senior class.

“I am confident that we will win a good amount of awards,” Bennett said. “I can?t compare to the other classes because I don?t know much about their movies, but I?m fairly confident that we?ll win Best Picture. It?s hard to rank, but I?d say it?s gonna be the best movie we?ve done as a class.”

With not much time to complete the longest movie of their high school career, Franz and Bennett have a lot on their plate for the next few days.

“It?s pretty hard to talk about any sort of joy or excitement right now, because I?m basically a giant ball of stress at the moment,” Bennett said. “I?m sure that when this crazy thing is done and dusted, I?ll be able to say, ‘That sure was fun. We made a good movie and had a good time.’ But right now all I can think about is being eaten alive by the giant tentacle creature that is the deadline.”

At first, Franz was not so sure about the idea of an original film for NOTS, instead of the conventional remake of popular movies, but as he has worked with Bennett and with this project, he has grown to like the idea more and more.

“I give a lot of credit to Mark on this one,” Franz said. “He not only wrote a movie in less than a week, but he also is willing to film and co-direct it. I originally came into this project with low expectations, but those have since been exceeded. The only real stress is the lack of time before NOTS to get it done.”

Of all the classes they are competing against, Franz is concerned only about the junior class, not only because they were one of the two classes who swept the awards last year but also because he has caught a peek at clips of their film and cannot help but acknowledge its quality.

“The freshman class is making commercials, which I am looking forward to, but I don’t see how they could win with that,” Franz said. “As I understand it the sophomore class hasn’t begun filming yet so I’m not expecting much there. However, I have viewed parts of the juniors’ movie and I must tip my hat to them. If anyone were to beat us in the awards, it would be them.”

Franz is unsure of the final results of the competition, as the deadline is rapidly approaching, but he is confident that he has done his best and hopes that it will be enough.

“Quite honestly I have no idea how this movie is going to turn out,” Franz said. “If it tanks, it tanks. If it gets a roaring applause, more power to you. Either way, I did my best.”

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @JennaWeimer42. Follow The Feather via Twitter: @thefeather.

For more features, read the Feb. 8 article, Feather highlights: ‘Life Chats with Deb’ blog.