Wrinkle Creative | By Randy Strobl

In its second year, the Saugatuck Shorts Film Competition had a fantastic turnout. Excited viewers and filmmakers arrived early to the Saugatuck Center for the Arts and buzzed around talking, laughing, and sharing stories. Mallory and I were in attendance for our film, Rail Fan, which was selected as one of the top 10 films. The lobby was bright with smiles and flash bulbs and my initial nervousness was quickly dispelled by warm hugs from friends and enthusiastic handshakes from other filmmakers. With everybody dressed to dazzle, the night was full of movie magic.

During the show, hosts Kristin Armstrong and Jon Helmrich kept the energy high by inviting the 10 film finalists up to the stage for a brief introduction and interview before their film. Mallory and I are proud to have been listed alongside such a talented group of filmmakers from such varied backgrounds and wide distances. The range of filmmaking voices featured in the program was so diverse, in fact, that I found myself being challenged to think differently, laugh at a scenes I wouldn't have expected to, and even feel nostalgic - all because of short, 5 minute stories told very well. Being so affected by such short films really drove home for me what a great film culture that is growing in Michigan.

There is no feeling quite like that of seeing your own work up on the big screen with a theater full of people reacting to it. Hearing people react to scenes that we wrestled with and debated and worked over and over puts a huge smile on my face. The real payoff, though, is after the show when audience members get to talk about the films with the filmmakers. Hearing people give love for Bob's story (Bob was the star of Rail Fan who was generous enough to let us follow him with equipment as he chased trains) was worth everything. Knowing that people were moved by him and understood his love for life is the real magic of filmmaking. I am incredibly grateful to have our film been shown along side such great and unique films, and am inspired by the great community that turned out to support Michigan Filmmaking.

Wrinkle Creative | By Randy Strobl

This federal data was released yesterday, and it's hard for me to describe how that feels, because it is an issue that I care so deeply about.

A year ago, Mallory and I produced and directed a documentary at WGVU Public Media. The documentary was a small part of a local initiative of the same name Get Your Diploma. Get Your Dream. which was, in turn, a small part of a national project called American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen which was nationally organized through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to take on America's dropout crisis. For WGVU's documentary, Mallory and I worked hands-on in classrooms teaching eighth graders who are at risk for dropping out of high school how to tell stories using cameras. In a different sense, I was also working to teach them that their stories matter, that the situations they live in everyday are not okay, and that video is a powerful tool for change. 

Over the course of the class, we accumulated hundreds of students' stories as they interviewed each other on camera. Of course, some were goofy and others didn't say much to the camera at all, but what they all did is move me. Even the kids who were being silly would slip in a bit about their dreams. I remember one of the student's videos I watched started out with the student who had the camera teasing everybody else because they didn't want to be filmed by him.  Finally he turned the camera on himself to show them how it's done.

What he said to the camera echoed what so many other students had said: that he wanted to be the first of his family to graduate high school, that he wanted to go to a university, and that he wanted to live a better life than his parents did. When I saw that, I paused to let it sink in. Then I watched it again. What struck me was that in such a rowdy atmosphere, even the ringleader who was laughing too hard to breathe was declaring that he needs a better life, that he needs to graduate, that he needs more.

With the help of our executive producer, Steve Chappell, we slowly churned these disparate videos into a cohesive story. We decided to zero in on a few students who had remarkably compelling stories to give us "a day in their life." After picking some students I thought would truly open up, we handed them cameras to take home and journal their lives.  Mallory coached them on how to narrate everything that happens and we told them that even the littlest thing - no matter how small it seems - could mean the world to somebody watching. I don't want to give too much away (because I want you to watch the film of course - see below) but on the night when I was going through the last student's video, I broke down and was crying along with her as she shared her dreams and her mountainous challenges. She said that she knew that she is not alone in these struggles and that there are other families who she wants to help.

I feel the same call to action that she does, and when I read that America's graduation rate is the highest it's been in history, I hope that our small documentary or our time spent in the classroom might have made a difference in a student's life. I hope that we helped show them that there is a life outside of how they grew up and how their parents grew up. I hope that we helped them follow their dreams.

Thank you for reading,

Randy


What are your thoughts?

Wrinkle Creative | By Randy Strobl

These students are incredible! Today was our first day of production and I taught my group how to use the camera, microphones and tripods and they mastered it with ease! Within minutes we were equipped and ready to head into production. 

The foursquare area was our soundstage and they moved quickly and had the vision to know exactly what shots they wanted and how to execute them. What impressed me most, though, was that as other kids showed up at The Boys and Girls Club, our group worked them into the script! Even I would have tried to work around them, but this decision really added to their production value as they were able to achieve whole group shots with a huge number of excited extras!

I think there's a lot I can learn from these students as we work together to create a film.

       -Randy

Wrinkle Creative | By Randy Strobl

Today was my first day teaching with the Mosaic Film Experience and it was an amazing opportunity. Although Mosaic is a Grand Rapids film festival in November, they are working with the Community Media Center to help middle and high school students create their own films for the festival.

Today started a five day camp in which the students will make a short film from an idea to a finished project. The kids are split into groups of two to write and produce their own stories and teamed up with a local filmmaker who acts as a coach to help bring their ideas to life.

On my team is Ana and Kenneth. I met Ana first and she sat down behind her book - which seemed thicker than she is tall, so I asked her about it and she timidly told me that it's from her favorite book series, Divergent, which just so happens to have been recently adapted as a motion picture. Then I got to meet Kenneth who also was very quiet when he sat down. Luckily, this wasn't my first time teaching a filmmaking class (Mallory and I taught as part of WGVU's Get Your Diploma Get Your Dream project) so I quickly put the project in their hands by explaining that the best films are inspired by real life experiences. We started by making a list of 8 things in their lives that made them laugh. Before I knew it they were sharing, writing, and laughing about their stories!

After we reached our goal of 8 ideas (and they actually came up with more than that) and narrowed it down, I showed them how to write it into a script and then how to create storyboards. By this time, some of the other groups had already finished and the room was getting rowdy around us. To my happy surprise, our group was so passionately involved in their story that they ignored the jokes and yells from the room around them and instead were intently bent over their storyboards discussing their script, close-ups shots, montages, and over-the-shoulder shots.

I couldn't be prouder of my team and I can't wait to see what it looks like as they head into production tomorrow!

-Randy