Indy’s film production class has been working hard all year to gather the information needed to make a short film. Mr. Flake, the film production teacher, had them learn about screenwriting, music videos, experimental film, television production and silent films, in order to be able to make their very own production. 

This past month, Mr. Flake assigned his class a task, to get into groups and create a short film. The only restrictions were that the film had to be five to six minutes long, be school appropriate and have a narrative. When the groups finished their productions, they would be presented to the school to be voted upon. 

The films included Clownapping, Clue: Cut to The Chase, ISOLATION and BATBOY. 

Junior Chloe Marion, part of the Clownapping group, explained that the idea was completely random and her group just wanted to do something big to finish the school year. To make this film possible, the group spent a large amount of time filming. “We spent two full nights filming. We took about an hour to get our costumes and makeup on and then filmed for four hours.” The filming process took quite a while, but their film came together in the end and the school got the chance to see clownapping in action. 

Clue: Cut to The Chase was created and directed by senior Max Layman. According to Layman, the process of creating the film was a strenuous one. It started with storyboarding, which included creating and planning out the story into separate frames or scenes that would help bring the story into place. Next, he casted the characters and found a place where they could film. Layman chose his house to film at, seeing as it seemed to be a good fit for the story. Once he had everything figured out, he had the cast over to his house and filmed. Lastly, the editing crew put the clips together, added special effects and put on any other finishing touches. 

Though the film took a lot of work to create, it paid off in the end when the school’s votes made Clue: Cut to The Chase the winner of the short film competition.