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Photograph by Douglas Rider
No Time for Lunch: Assistant Cameraman Petr Stepanek gets the camera ready to shoot a scene at the intersection of Minnesota and Hicks avenues.
WGHS students and teacher are team behind 'Kidschool'
Trio is producing a short film they hope will be their ticket to bigger things to come
By Kate Carter
"Action!" On a bright Saturday morning, a film shoot on the corner of Minnesota and Hicks avenues catches the attention of neighbors, dog-walkers and families headed to the park, who pause in groups on the sidewalk to murmur and stare. One woman with a golden retriever even passes through the impromptu movie set a second time to get a better look.
"Cut!" calls one of the young movie directors.
"Oh, am I in the way?" the woman asks.
The movie crew can't really blame her for not knowing the etiquette of how to watch a movie get filmed. Willow Glen isn't often used as a backdrop for scenes in motion pictures.
But the movie that was wrapping up on March 17, is no ordinary film, and the filmmakers are no ordinary movie mavens.
The film, Kidschool, is a story about a boy named Adrian who has "a really bad day." It's being directed by Willow Glen residents Max Knies, 17, and Seth Andrews, 18, who are shooting many of the scenes right here in Willow Glen. Andrews was, and Knies still is, a student in the Advanced Placement English class taught by Michael Andres, 29, at Willow Glen High School. The three discovered that they shared a love of movies and an interest in making one of their own.
So, when Andres wrote a script last summer and decided to spend more than $30,000 of his own money to put it on film, he called on Knies, currently a Willow Glen High senior, and Andrews, a Willow Glen High alum now attending West Valley College, to direct.
Andres says Knies and Andrews are more interested in the technical side of filmmaking, while he prefers to concentrate on the acting. He wanted their enthusiasm and creativity working for him, he says, and he also wanted to give the two Hollywood hopefuls something significant to put on their resumes.
"I believe in young people," Andres says. "They did a great job. Kids never get representation."
Both Knies and Andrews jumped at the chance to build on their movie-making experience by helping film a movie on 16 mm film. They have been working almost every day since early October, clocking hundreds of hours for a movie that will end up running less than an hour, Andres says. They started filming in early February, and now all that remains is editing the footage.
Photograph by Douglas Rider
Caught on Film: Actors James Rodriguez, left, and Aaron Robinson, right, hold their positions as Carlos Negrete, director of photography, adjusts the camera to shoot a scene for 'Kidschool' at Willow Glen High School.
Knies and Andrews are being paid only with their names in the credits and the experience they hope to gain. That's worth far more to them than mere money.
"To us, it feels like we're making a real movie," Andrews says. "For someone our age, around here, it's kind of unheard of for something like this. I just felt incredibly lucky that this turned into what it turned into."
The significance of this project is pretty staggering to those in the know, film-wise. Filmmaking isn't cheap--some short films can cost as much as $1,000 for every minute that ends up in the final cut.
Because of the expense, most independent films are short--between 15 minutes and 1 hour--and are shot on 16 mm film. But even those cost a lot more money than most young movie makers have. And, to establish themselves in the industry, movie industry hopefuls really have to be involved in a true "film"--movies recorded digitally don't have quite the clout, although that's starting to change.
Andres' film is actually being shot on what's called Super 16 film, which can can be blown up onto 35 mm film.
Andres says refinancing his home in Saratoga was worth making a film that could be better received at film festivals, which is where filmmakers can get exposure and win awards. He also says he wanted to use only his own money to make sure his story was told the way he wanted it to be.
"You have a vision in your head which is quite clear," he says, "and you want to express it and you're willing to sacrifice time, money and freedom."
The three have high hopes to use their short film to build their marketability in the cutthroat world of filmmaking. They hope to win awards at big film festivals around the country and the world and to have their movie shown in local theaters.
But they also want their audience to look past the incredible feat of a teacher and two of his students devoting countless hours and thousands of dollars to something they love to do. They want people to see the message of their film.
"I think kids are dismissed too often," Andres says. "It's our responsibility to continue to engage them. If you want to play hardball with them, it's over."
Photograph by Douglas Rider
Scenic View: Actor Aaron Robinson forces actor Anthony Santucci to get down on the ground as Carlos Negrete, director of photography, films the action. It took six takes to get the shot 'in the can.'
Abduction Junction
In Kidschool, Adrian is a high school student who works to support himself and his abusive father. He is under a lot of pressure to conform to what his dad wants out of him and what school administrators expect of him. What Adrian really wants to do is quit school, get his GED and start supporting himself.
On this really bad day, Adrian finally snaps from the disregard the adults in his life have for what he is good at and what he values.
Reminiscent of recent incidents of student violence, Adrian ends up with his father's gun and eludes police, to get away to his favorite place in the mountains. There, he encounters his nemesis, the high school's vice principal.
When the vice principal tries to turn Adrian in, Adrian abducts him at gunpoint and forces him to snowboard as if his life depended on it, because, in this case, it does. Adrian hopes, in this way, to make the vice principal understand that what he and society say are most important, namely academic success, are just as arbitrary judgment factors as snowboarding prowess.
"Now you know what it feels like to be me," Knies says to describe the feeling Adrian has.
Andres, a teacher at Willow Glen High for eight years, says his movie shouldn't be interpreted as anti-education or pro-violence.
"I love school," he says. "It's really easy when it works for you. But I think I understand something about education. People have different aptitudes. It's unrealistic and dangerously misguided to make everyone fit the same mold. I've seen this enough to now to have something to say about it."
Andrews and Knies agree that the movie accurately portrays what real kids feel in high school these days.
"The real world can be ugly for a lot of teenagers," Knies says.
"We think, that because of its subject, it's pretty daring for what's going on right now," Andrews says. "I feel that a lot of the kids that go to school right now will understand his character and understand what he goes through at school. People will look at the movie and look at stuff that's happening in society. They'll see that kids need more attention."
Photograph by Douglas Rider
Group Effort: Monroe Cummings, production sound mixer, holds the boom as the rest of the crew gets ready to film a scene at Minnesota and Hicks avenues.
Living in Film
Andrews says he has been "messing around" with moviemaking on video cameras since he was a high school freshman. As a senior, he took a class, the first time it was offered at Willow Glen High, called "Film as Literature." Andrews says that decided him on pursuing a moviemaking career.
"It made it a reality for me, that I could do it," Andrews says.
Knies also took the class. Andrews says he had known Knies before the film class, but it was in the class that a friendship blossomed between the two over their shared passion for film. Andrews says they and several other Willow Glen students spend time together working on movies.
"It's fun, because, instead of going to the school to play baseball, we get together making movies," Andrews says. "I just like the whole process, from thinking up the idea to the final edit. Things build off the others and it just gets better and better all the time."
Knies and Andrews don't exactly play the "Adrian" role in their lives. Maybe that's because they're too busy.
In his spare time, Andrews also throws the shot put, discus and hammer on the West Valley track team and helps coach the Willow Glen High's football and track teams.
But, "I try to work on movies as much as I can," he says.
Andrews plans to transfer to UC-Riverside this fall and hopes to get into a film school later on, "preferably in LA," he says.
"I just want to get down to LA and start meeting people," Andrews says. "The biggest thing about film schools, especially in LA, is the people you meet."
Meanwhile, he intends to keep working on movies with friends and as an intern, and he has plans to participate in the video filming of a feature-length film this summer.
Knies says he is less interested in going to school in Los Angeles. "LA is somewhere I want to end up, but I don't want to spend a lot of time living there," he explains.
Knies graduates from Willow Glen High this spring and is applying to film schools for the coming school year. He isn't applying to University of Southern California, one of the nation's top film schools, but he does hope to attend New York University's prestigious and selective film program. Even if he doesn't get in right away, he says he's confident he will someday.
"Kidschool" is Knies' first movie recorded on film, but he says he's worked on lots of video projects.
Knies says he hopes the experience will get him noticed in the highly competitive field of movie making, but he also has other leadership and visual arts experience.
Knies is Willow Glen High's Associated Student Body president and is the layout and photo editor for the school yearbook. He also writes for Zero, a local music magazine, and works at Willow Glen's Superior Color Lab, where he prints black-and-white photos. He plays the drums and guitar and rides a longboard skateboard for fun. And he's taking two Advanced Placement classes this year--economics and English.
But making movies is his passion.
"I want to make a really good short, win some awards and break into the industry like that," Knies says. "I want to be able to make a living in film."
Talented Trio: From left, Seth Andrews, co-director, Michael Andres, writer and producer and Max Knies, co-director, work together to make 'Kidschool,' a film about a high school student who takes a vice principal hostage. Andres wrote the story, financed the making of the film, and recruited Andrews and Knies to direct.
Photograph by Douglas Rider
'Faith in the accidental'
Andres, the movie's producer, also enjoys film. But for him, the way he tells the story is less important than the story he tells.
"I'm using film strictly as a medium," Andres says. "Movies are the best medium to reach audiences right now."
Andres says he has wanted to make a movie for some time. He was an award-winning actor as a student at Saratoga High School and graduated with honors and a major in English from UCLA. He started as an English teacher at Willow Glen High after graduation. His experience there was the inspiration for the movie.
Andres says he got the idea for Kidschool over a year ago, when he thought about what it would be like if teachers were asked to take a surfing class. He says it's important for teachers and adults to allow kids to be themselves and to excel in their own vocations. Valuing success in a subject such as English is "just as arbitrary" as valuing skills in surfing, he says.
"It breaks my heart to see people start school with self-esteem and leave feeling terrible," Andres says. He says it would better if there were more vocational class offerings and less stringent high school graduation requirements, so that more kids could succeed in school, in the areas where they are talented. As it is now, he says, San Jose Unified School District high school graduation requirements for next year's graduating class are the same as the college entrance requirements to the University of California.
Andres says violence on school campuses could be avoided if more people allowed kids to be who they are, and not forced them to be something they're not. All it takes is letting students achieve in their chosen vocation and providing them with positive family support.
"The kid in the movie, he's my hero," Andres says. "He's real and he wants to help people."
Adrian in the movie is named after Andres' son Adrian, whose birth Andres and his wife Linda are expecting this May.
Andres is worried about what kind of response the movie will get.
"It hurts my feelings to have someone misunderstand the movie," he says. "I don't look forward to the reactions I'm going to get. The movie is controversial because people recognize themselves in the movie."
But Knies and Andrews say their teacher can be proud of the example he sets.
"He gives every single student the attention they deserve," Andres says.
Andres says he hopes to earn back enough money from the film to do it again. He would also like to get future jobs writing screenplays and maybe directing, he says.
As for the pedestrian who appeared in his movie scene on their last day of filming, Andres says he tries "to have faith in the accidental." He says even she plays an important part in the movie and in life.
"I loved having the woman in the background," he says. "If everyone did his part, then it would go better. If you're doing your part, you don't have anything to worry about. This movie is my part."
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
