Expand<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cMy mom said, \u2018You are already there. This happened for a reason,’\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m so glad I took my mom\u2019s advice \u2026 this was a really fun project.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea behind the project was relatively simple. \u201cLife At Your School\u201d would take a skeleton script written by Faba Films co-founder C\u00e9d Hopkins, get input from school and Santa Rosa City Schools officials, and let the students lead the way. Meaning they would not only star in the film, but they would run cameras, set up lighting, figure out the sound and create a social media campaign to advertise the finished product.<\/p>\n
The Lobos earned this right by getting the most votes in a Faba Films contest last school year. The Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Trustees OK\u2019d the program, which didn\u2019t cost the district any funds, last spring.<\/p>\n
So a gaggle of selected Elsie Allen students spent every weekday in the month of July on campus filming scenes, making script edits, masterminding a social media campaign and putting their stamp on what Hopkins hopes will be the first in a series of school-based films illuminating what life is like for teens on school campuses across the country.<\/p>\n
According to participants, the script deals with the ins and outs of sometimes typical hurdles in the life of a teen: peer pressure, social apprehension and stress. But it also touches on deeper issues including death and mental health struggles.<\/p>\n
Hopkins wrote the script, but wasn\u2019t wedded to it. She gave Elsie Allen higher-ups as well as Santa Rosa City Schools officials permission to tinker. She gave that same green light to students. If the words they were saying in front of the camera didn\u2019t feel right, they\u2019d change them.<\/p>\n
Case in point?<\/p>\n
Carpenito\u2019s character was written as a jock who is suffering from crippling anxiety. He asked Hopkins if the script could be changed to make his character a musician, albeit one who suffers from the same issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe, personally, I do music, that is a passion of mine so I wanted to make this character as relatable as possible to me as a person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And another lead actor, Max Barraza, said that more than once, he had to mess with the dialogue to make it sound real.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lingo between us is really different now,\u201d he said of the final product. \u201cWe kind of switched the lingo up to something more modern for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gave them autonomy to say, \u2018I like the script this way,’\u201d said Dr. Lynette Adams, founder of the Atlanta-based nonprofit The Joy Lab, which partnered with Faba Films on the project.<\/p>\n
Adams met Hopkins last year at a film festival where both women bonded over the idea of helping students share stories of mental health and eventually supporting a student-led film that focused on the same. Adams, who was an adjunct professor at the University of Denver teaching nonprofit leadership, signed on to be an on-set behavioral scientist.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mission really is to develop the next generation of joy-informed leaders and give them the confidence, resilience, connection and purpose that kind of allows them to lead themselves, their community and the world around them,\u201d Adams said of The Joy Lab\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
And that work had a place in the every-day production of \u201cLife At Your School,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really wasn\u2019t just about making a movie,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018Life At Your School\u2019 was a student-driven campaign to talk about growing up in a body and a mind and a world that doesn\u2019t always ask how you are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hopkins said she wanted the film to explore weightier topics.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I wrote the script because when I lost a high school classmate of mine, I kept my mental health struggles and my anxieties to myself,\u201d she said. \u201cI just wish that we didn\u2019t hide it and we could talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The premise of the plot is that a group of students failed to turn in a final project and are forced into a summer-school like setting to complete it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir final project is \u2018Who are you really?’\u201d said Kyle Woodruff, English teacher at Elsie Allen and the school liaison for the summer project.<\/p>\n
Woodruff, too, spent her July \u201con set.\u201d Limited by the extensive roofing project going on throughout the Bellevue Avenue campus, much of the production took place in the classrooms that house the agriculture program.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome days it was \u2018Hey, we can\u2019t film here, what can we do instead?’\u201d she said. \u201cThey are problem-solvers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsie Allen principal Casey Cunningham sees the film as a unique way to showcase what students at Elsie can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur kids are being able to be creative in so many different ways,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way for our community to get to know our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Cunningham tapped Woodruff, who came to Elsie Allen with some theater background, \u201cthe minute that we found out that we were picked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s an amazing English teacher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The crew was given breakfast and lunch each day, many of those meals thanks to donations from places such as BJ\u2019s Restaurant and Brewhouse, Panera Bread, Costco, Target and Hansel Auto Group, Woodruff said. Elsie teachers, too, sponsored meals.<\/p>\n
Even without having seen the final product, Woodruff said the summer experience was moving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love these kids,\u201d she said. \u201cOur community of students is remarkable and amazing. These kids need to have their voices out there and they need to have as many opportunities as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The movie, still in the editing phase, will be premiered at an event on the quad at Elsie Allen at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 21. The screening is free but donations will be accepted. Once completed, the movie will be available to stream for free on the Faba Films<\/a> website.<\/p>\n\u201cI hope this can reach a bunch of students because it\u2019s a student film,\u201d Barraza, a rising sophomore, said. \u201cIt\u2019s for people who are struggling with mental health and people who aren\u2019t. Basically everyone. It\u2019s for people who aren\u2019t so they can see the signs of stuff that can happen and they know that they can talk to them, even if they don\u2019t know what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something important.\u201d<\/p>\n
How to attend<\/p>\n
\u201cLife at Your School,\u201d will premiere at Elsie Allen High School at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 21 in the quad. Viewing the film is free. Donations will be accepted. Food and drink will be available for purchase. For more information and to stream the Elsie Allen project, go to: www.fabafilms.com\/student-series<\/p>\n
You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Instagram @kerry.benefield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Carpenito originally signed up to be on the sound team. The rising sophomore at Elsie Allen High…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[246710,103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-584208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-faba-films-joy-lab-elsie-allen-high-school-santa-rosa","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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