Film Students Attend Macon Film Festival
Thirty-six film students from Jasper County High School (JCHS) attended the Macon Film Festival as a kickoff to a new year.
They watched six short films produced by student filmmakers from around the world, including Australia, Iran, and the Ukraine. One filmmaker from London conducted a Q&A session with the audience about filmmaking. The students also watched two nature documentaries in the planetarium at the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences.
Sophomore Karlee Cantrell commented, “The films I watched inspire me to make my own that are just as good.”
The new art teacher at JCHS, Rhonda McFarland, accompanied the students to the film festival and said, “Film is a powerful tool that merges many creative disciplines and crafts. I think our students are interested in being media literate and find that film production courses help them develop the skills to have a voice in an increasingly visual world.”
The “Audio, Video Technology, and Film” (AVTF) program started as an off-shoot of instructor Tyson Harty’s third-year engineering class three years ago and has more than quadrupled in size from last year to over 40 students. This year, JCHS also expanded its film program with a “Dramatic Writing for Film” class spearheaded by English teacher Luke McFarland.
“Georgia has made a strong effort to have a relevant writing class that couples with the budding film industry in Georgia,” said Mr. McFarland. “There is currently no writing going on in our state, and this class aims to help change that.”
Over the past few summers, teachers Tyson Harty and Luke McFarland trained with the Georgia Film Academy (GFA) on new high school curricula and industry-standard equipment use. JCHS received equipment grants from GFA and the Georgia Department of Education to support its growing film program.
Last spring, JCHS film students submitted three original short science fiction films to the Middle Georgia Film Festival at Georgia College in Milledgeville. Students this year plan to produce and submit films to several film festivals around the state.
“It’s a great learning experience for our students to see other student films and gives them exposure and justification for their work,” said Dr. Harty.
Georgia’s film and television industry is now third in the nation in number of productions, behind California and New York, and last year was first in the world for feature films. Marvel Studios, headquartered just south of Atlanta, this year broke several box office records with “Avengers: Endgame” grossing almost $3 billion worldwide. The film employed several thousand Georgians.
The past two years, JCHS film students won the Powerade “Power Your School” contest with original short films. The prize winnings have supported both the film program and the high school athletic program.
Tarek Ahmad, a JCHS senior and second-year film student, is assisting the football team this year by filming plays from the press box for coaches and players to analyze. “Everybody has a vision. In filming, it’s your chance to show the world that vision,” said Ahmad.
In addition to short films, JCHS film students also produce promotional shorts, documentaries, and productions of school events such as graduation, prom, and sports. Students in the film class learn everything from camera, sound, and lighting to editing and screenwriting.
“My five year goal is to have students graduating from our high school film program return to start film production studios here in Jasper County,” said Dr. Harty. “Film is growing in middle Georgia from Covington to Macon to Milledgeville. Monticello is a great location with its natural beauty and small-town, historic charm. What better way to keep our students here and promote smart growth in our community?”
See the film students’ original content on YouTube at http://youtube.com/JCHSFilm.