Feature-Length Effort

WBHS film fest showcases student talent.

Seniors Boris Isakov and Eric Wolf with sophomore Conner Williams

L

Kale Davidoff

T2T staff writer

fights. Camera. Action ... well,
not exactly. You see, it's not that
easy.
That's what I and 60 other students at
West Bloomfield High School found out
this winter when we created a feature-
length motion picture for WBHS' fifth
annual film festival.
The festival is held every February to
showcase the best short videos created
by the school's TV and video produc-
tion classes. And for the
past four years, an extra
night has been added
to premiere a feature-
length film created by
student collaboration.
The first year featured
a psychological thriller,
followed by a romantic
comedy. Last year's film
portrayed a high school
detective trying to solve
the crime of his career.
For the 2008
film, seniors Rachel
Kelmenson and Jackson
Sherman and I were
chosen to write the
script last June. Near the
end of summer, without much done, we
needed to come up with something fast
because pre-production would begin at
the end of October.
We decided on something fun, enter-
taining and challenging — a movie that
pokes fun at horror movies. By trying to
make it look like a bad movie, we'd actu-
ally make a funny one.
The premise: For some unknown rea-

son, teachers at an unlucky high school
become transformed into monsters that
eat their students. That was basically
it. What sounded like a simple comedy
turned into three months of an educa-
tionally fun and difficult process to cre-
ate a 69-minute movie.
The production crew was chosen in
October, with the Jewish community
well represented by all three writers, four
directors and many other actors and
production staff members.
I was chosen to direct the film with
senior Josh Saham. Seniors Steve Kanter
and Boris Isakov were
the assistant direc-
tors, with seniors Jeff
Mahowski and Abbey
Schwantes co-pro-
ducing. Senior Adam
King handled the
cinematography while
sophomore Zach Bayer
edited the film.
Jackson Sherman
and senior Courtney
Zimmer played the
two lead parts with
seniors Eric Wolf,
Schwantes, Daniel
Dumas, Adam
Kwaselow and 40
other actors filling in
the rest of the parts. We also got more
than a dozen staff members to act as
teachers-monsters for the movie includ-
ing a sizeable, speaking part for math
teacher Ryan Zachos.
Like I said, making a movie isn't easy.
It takes a lot of time and cooperation.
Time didn't come so easily. We basically
had three months to make this movie,
shooting every weekday one to two hours

Senior Esther Rubyan puts monster makeup on sophomore Conner Williams.

each day plus two five-hour Saturdays.
That seems like a lot of time, but some
scenes took up to 30 or more shots.
That's a lot of takes. Each shot is care-
fully crafted and lit and rehearsed. We
spent all day one Saturday in the front
atrium of the school shooting an elabo-
rate battle scene. All of that time and
effort got compacted into two minutes in
the edited process.
Three months later, Staff Infection
drew a crowd of more than 700 people to
its Feb. 2 premiere, where it was met with
great laughter, cheering and applause
from the crowd.
Making this movie was an amazing
experience. I recently saw actor Richard
Dreyfuss at an MSU Hillel event. I had a

chance to talk to him and he told me
that film is a unique form of art in the
sense that it takes cooperation, ideas and
skills from every person on production
to make a quality movie. I can safely say
that this film was indeed a collabora-
tive effort and, in this day and age, ifs
nice to see that a bunch of people can
get together to get something done and
make it great.

Kale Davidoff, 1Z is a junior at West

Bloomfield High School. Contact Kale at
KDJedimaster2001@aol.com to purchase
the Staff Infection DVD. Check out a

trailer for the movie at www.youtube.com/
watch?v=FupeclogyFA

Purim Party Planned

The Chabad Jewish Center of Commerce has started a new group call iTeens
for teenage Jewish girls. The group will hold a Purim party that includes baking

hamantashen at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, at the center, 4718 Half Penny Court,
Commerce. Respond to estie@jewishcommerce.org or call (248) 363-3644.

The new iTeens

Tuning into your Jewish Self.

Watch for teen teen in next week's Jewish News

March 13 • 2008