PARIS – Tim Ouillette offers an advanced communications class at the Technical School at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.
“We’ve got two sections that meet on opposite days,” Ouillette explained.
Students new to the program learn things like media theory and the basics of “tech stuff,” while second-year students learn advanced skills, including video editing, 3-D production and audio engineering.
Last September, each of the second-year students wrote a screenplay. Through a process that included group readings, feedback and rewrites, three finalists were chosen. The students have been working together to direct, act, run camera and edit scenes to create a final product.
On Monday morning, students worked independently at the beginning of class, some creating a short mood piece due at the end of the week.
Alanna Flanders of South Paris was editing some video she’d shot of her friends’ eyes, “changing colors and adding music to create a dark, evocative mood.” Flanders wants to go to college for film directing.
“I like the rush of commanding people,” she said with a laugh.
Ben Judkins of South Paris sat editing a movie that he wrote, directed and starred in. One of the three films chosen for production, “Echo,” is the story of a new student with a love interest who discovers he’s reliving the same day over and over.
His work for the day included color balancing, where “you sync all the lighting (from scenes shot at different times) to make it look like it’s all happening the same day,” Judkins explained.
During the second half of class, students and teacher headed down to the hallway outside the school store to shoot a scene from “Punch Drunk Love.”
Chloe Pierce of Oxford played a character called Lena. After taking Ouillette’s class this year, she’s studying graphics and applying to several colleges with good programs in that field.
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