High School Movie Part 1

When I visited home my Mom told me to go through the closet in my old room and let her know what she could take to Goodwill.

I came across a script of a short video project I made for my thesis English project with journal entries inside a binder. It brought back crazy memories. More that I was 18 years old, ready to graduate and thought this was the entire world to me.

The story was about a LAYNE, a high school transfer student who turns to armed robbery to supplement his adolescent need for kicks. He befriends a pretty rich girl named EVE, who he believes is one of the snobs, but deep down inside likes the rough guy. He ropes her into some of his crimes. He soon becomes so consumed with the adrenaline rush of knocking off bars that he turns to mini-marts. Not wanting to go along with this crime spree, Eve eventually turns on him by shooting him and leaving him for dead.

I casted my friend John in the role of Layne, as he was the scraggliest guy I knew. A lot of girls seemed to like him. He had a Johnny Depp quality to him. For the girl, I casted my friend Ashley, whom I am friends with to this day. I think, for the most part, I recruited people I thought wanted not to write a paper but to actually make something. This was a total Little Rascals type of effort.

Yes…I made this movie. And for the life of me, know it’s floating around somewhere in my parents’ home and desperately would love to see it again.

The following were journal entries from that shoot. I found fascinating, since…my approach to making these projects haven’t really changed as I am now. Most of the entries seem to indicate anguish. At 18 years old (not so much older than where my nephew is now) I seemed to overreact a lot to stupid shit. Adrenaline mixed with hormones, I guess.

Day One May 24, 1993 Monday

8:00 AM the crew arrived at school. A simple meeting in Mrs. McFarland’s (English teacher) room. Planning for shooting schedule at Jarret’s home – approx. 11:30AM. Pizza arrived at 12:00PM. When we finished eating we decided to run through the final script, adding and deleting dialogue as necessary. We all met at Hyde Park, an hour and a half after the final run through. At Ault Park, an individual park aside from the Hyde Park area (I think I meant to write on the “outskirts of…”) we filmed the “conscience” scene which took more than a (sic) hour, I am not sure. Fatigue has taken over, added with arguments, a waste of time. The pressure has begun to set in on myself, hopefully the crew doesn’t realize it yet. 4:00PM filming for the day is wrapped.

That was the first day (of seven shooting days)…