School's 'in' for summer

Encouraged by his teacher, 12-year-old Brock Austin collided with an opened school locker and fell to the hallway floor. And that was just the first take of a video that summer school students are making at the Jackson Middle School.

Brock didn't really run into the school locker. He just pretended to do so, his every move choreographed and captured by a video camera a few feet away.

Students wrote the script. Filming began Tuesday.

Actors Haley Yancey, 12, left, and Blake Julian, 13, both students at Jackson Middle School, waved to the camera as they signed off as part of the school's survival video produced at the school Tuesday. (Don Frazier)

It's all part of a transitions class taught by sixth-grade science teacher Sherry Ford to help orient students to the middle school.

Ford and her fellow sixth-grade teachers thought incoming students would benefit from a survival video which explains school rules and procedures with a sense of humor.

The project excites students. About 120 are involved in the project.

"It's fun," said Brock, who will be attending the middle school as a sixth grader this fall. Summer school, he said, already has oriented him to the school. "It is going to make it easier."

The school educates sixth and seventh graders in the Jackson School District.

Ford's summer-school transition classes include both students entering the sixth grade and those entering the seventh grade.

Brock embraced his acting role. "The most fun part was running into the locker," he said with a grin as he waited to film his next scene. "I'll be famous in my school."

The school is spending about $400 to produce the video which is expected to be shown to middle school students when the new school year begins in August.

Micah McDowell of Jackson, a Southeast Missouri State University student who honed his video skills at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center, is filming the student production and will edit it. The finished product will be a DVD. Ford believes it will be about 30 minutes in length when edited.

The script is set up as a newscast with two students as television anchors and other students acting as field reporters for scenes filmed in the hallways and classrooms at the school.

Haley Yancey, 12, and Blake Julian, 13, co-anchored the "newscast" filmed in a classroom.

They read their lines from large, typed scripts clipped to the white board at the front of the room. One take. Two takes. Sometimes more, all under the direction and encouragement of Ford.

They filmed a few minutes at a time, the students studying their lines during each film break.

Blake said the toughest part was remembering all his lines with the camera staring at him.

As co-anchors they talked about everything from lunch money to dress code, to running in the halls and even student hygiene.

"Blake, you stink," Haley said, reading her lines and trying hard not to laugh.

"Well excuse me, I'm only a seventh grader," he responded on cue.

"Exactly, and you should be wearing deodorant every day," Haley replied.

The scene continued through several more lines. Sometimes they lost their concentration and stumbled over their lines.

Another take and then another. Each time they tried to keep themselves from cracking up over their dialogue.

Ford made sure the students kept to the task as the cameraman was being paid by the hour and the school day was winding down. "Let's go, we're on the clock," she told Haley and Blake as another student held a boom mike over the anchor desk in preparation for another take.

Later during the locker scene, Ford directed the actions of students. "Speak a little bit louder," she advised Brock.

She also managed to get a few custodians to cast disapproving looks on the poor student in his battle with a locker. Even the principal, Dr. Rodney Pensel, was recruited for a brief part.

Ford never imagined she'd be directing a film. But she's embraced the job.

"I like movies," she said with a smile.

Tuesday's school day ended with other scenes still waiting to be shot.

But the ending was already filmed and Haley had the last word.

"We hope your enjoy your time at the Jackson Middle School. It goes by fast, so make the best of it while you're here," she advised, looking straight into the camera.

As for Haley and her fellow film students, they're already making the best of it in summer school.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123