The Kids are Alright Dept.: “It’s great to watch the kids learn what it means to be a continuity person, what it means to be a gaffer, what it means to be craft services, you know?” That’s Clay Nichols, the head of St. Stephen’s Episcopal School‘s Theater Focus program, talking about the school’s remarkable leap into the world of indie filmmaking. Nichols, who runs the special theatre training program at the school, had the idea to make a short film on campus written by and starring his students with the aim of teaching the kids the basic ins and outs of filmmaking. What makes Nichols’ gambit different from other campus productions becomes apparent when you take into consideration that he’s brought on board Carty Talkington (of Love and a .45 fame) to direct, screenwriter Kurt Voelker (Sweet November) to polish the kids’ script, and Dazed and Confused‘s Rory Cochrane in a cameo role. As you read this the film is being shot on a Canon XL-1, with the digital dailies then dumped into a Media 100 desktop editing system to be cut and assembled over the course of the next several days. All this effort should be rewarded Sunday, May 13, at 8pm, when a rough cut of the film will be screened as part of St. Stephen’s MayFest 2001, at the Helm Fine Arts Center on the school’s campus. Nichols, who attended high school with Talkington and Voelker back in the day, says that the whole idea was to create a collaborative state between the students and the pros. “The kids are participating in every aspect of this film,” he says, “and in some ways it becomes a microcosm of what independent filmmaking is like. It’s crazy, there’s not enough money, the people are great, and it might end up being a really cool little movie.” And as for taking the completed film on the festival circuit once it’s done, Nichols says that’s a distinct possibility, though for now the kids are just trying to get the shots in the proverbial can. “I hope that this can become an annual program,” he adds. “Maybe some of the local filmmakers around Austin will hear about this and say, hey, that’s a cool way to give back, I’d love to try that sometime.” Sunday night’s rough-cut screening is free and open to the public. For more info, call Nichols at 327-1213… For every thing there is a season, but apparently every season is bad news for the Knoxville-based Regal Cinemas chain. They’ve announced that their Northcross 6 location in Northcross Mall will be joining the seemingly unending list of theatre closures on June 11 (when their lease is up) because the mall management wants to reclaim the space for a conference center. The Northcross was never one of the chain’s flagships, though personally I’ll never forget getting manhandled by the manager for sneaking in the back door to catch Dan O’Bannon‘s great Return of the Living Dead alongside Paul “Martian” Sessums way back in the summer of ’85. Ah, the folly of youth… Congrats to UT filmmaker Laura Dunn whose film Green has been nominated in the documentary category of this year’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Student Academy Awards… Hey, scriptboy (and girl)! The May 15 submission deadline is looming for Alchemy Works Movie Midwifing 2001 series. The popular script-reading event will select four new screenplays to be read and performed by professional actors here in Austin beginning in the fall. Entry fees are $25, and short film submissions are also sought. Check out www.moviemidwifing.com for more info… Finally, Cinemaker Co-op and Rude Mechanicals present Anthony McCall‘s experimental film Line Describing a Cone, Monday, May 14, 8:00 and 9:30pm, at the Off Center (2211-A Hidalgo St.). See www.rudemechs.com for more info.
This article appears in May 11 • 2001.