‘Soul’ business: "Media Arts in the Public Schools" puts Corvallis students in the movies

First, the tree in the front yard is blocking the camera angle they need to shoot a scene involving an ambulance.

Then, it’s blocking the ambulance itself from backing into the yard.

"Lose the tree," orders Peter Rosten to his herd of filmmakers. Then he winks at Terry Croghan, who owns both the tree and the home where the cast and crew of "Soul Sight" are filming.
"I used to be able to do that," Rosten says with a laugh.

After several unsuccessful attempts to get the ambulance into the yard, the scene is hastily revised. The ambulance retreats to the street, and emergency medical technicians Jessi Jessop and Doug Simmons become actors.

They strap 11-year-old actress Julia Wiencek to a backboard, and are filmed carrying her out of the house.

They rehearse. Then it’s one take, two takes, three takes, four.

"Somebody tell him their arms are getting tired," hollers crew member Matt Derrough as the girl is carried in and out, in and out.

"I know, I know, just one more," Rosten says.

But every time the EMTs think their 15 minutes of fame are up, they’re not.

The filmmakers need shots of Wiencek being loaded into the ambulance. They need shots of her being loaded on the backboard inside the house. Every scene is talked through and walked through, then shot several times.

And when they’re finally done, a second unit is dispatched with the EMTs to film the ambulance rolling. They can’t turn on the siren, Simmons and Jessop tell Rosten, but that’s no problem. The filmmakers will add a siren to the soundtrack later.

"And we got a POV (point of view) of one of the EMTs working on (Wiencek) inside the ambulance," Derrough announces when he and a cameraman return.

"Great idea," Rosten tells him.

It’s been a hectic, productive day on the set of "Soul Sight." The psychological thriller is about a teenage girl out to solve the several-years-old murders of her parents.

It’s not a low-budget film.

"It’s a low, low, low-budget film," Rosten says.

And, aside from Rosten and the actors, it’s being made entirely by Corvallis High School students. They wrote it. They cast it. They’re helping to direct it. They man the cameras, the sound equipment. They’ll edit it. They are producing it.

"We were just talking," says Don Matlock, one of nine adult actors with the Hamilton Players who have parts in the movie. "We all wish they’d had a class like this when we were in high school."

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At the movies

"French Love," a 22-minute romantic comedy made last year by Corvallis High School students, shows Thursday, May 26, at 4 p.m. at the Pharaohplex Theatre between Hamilton and Corvallis.

Admission is free, but donations will be accepted to help raise tuition funds for former media arts student Mark Wax, who has been accepted to the summer program at the School of American Ballet in New York City.

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MAPS: "Media Arts in the Public Schools"
http://www.mediarts.org/

Florence Prever Rosten Foundation

Peter Rosten, President

PO Box 750

Darby, MT. 59829

821-3780 (h)

370-3745 (cell)

[email protected]

By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2005/05/22/territory/territory01.txt