Students Discuss Upcoming Documentary with Filmmaker and Producer

1/16/2020

On Jan. 13, filmmaker David Modigliani (Running with Beto, Crawford) and producer Rachel Ecklund visited two film classes to discuss a rough-cut of Modigliani's new film. Ready or Not is a documentary about Marcel McClinton, a young man who ran for City Council last year in Houston while he was a senior in high school.

As Modigliani and Ecklund showed Rough Cut #5 and discussed the project, students learned that even accomplished professionals revise their films numerous times, gathering and incorporating the feedback of many people before getting the final product just right.

“I thought the class was very interesting and informative on the process of editing and shooting films,” said 11^th grader Tsu-Er (Jewel) Lee. “It was super cool to listen to professionals talk about their jobs and ask them questions about the meaning behind the documentary.”

Students also had the chance to apply their critical thinking skills along with creativity as they pointed out weaknesses in the cut and offered solutions.

“My favorite thing about this opportunity is the fact that a class of high school amateur film students are able to give feedback, both positive and negative, to a project that professionals are still working on,” said 12^th grader Allen Cao. “Because the film revolves around a teenager of our age, we have different perspectives from the adults who are making the film. It also was interesting to discuss the big ideas and themes of the film with its producer; it almost felt like discussing the meaning of a book with its author.”

Eleventh grader Augustus (Gus) Cosby found the experience to be both instructive and uplifting. “Not only was it helpful to watch a well-produced movie and try to critique it, but the explanations that the filmmakers gave of their process and their responses to our comments and reviews were incredibly insightful. The descriptions of how they acquired coverage, the odd order in which they edited, and their stories of how they got into filmmaking were educational and inspiring. I wanted to just run out and make a documentary.”

Students weren’t the only participants exhilarated by the experience. “I loved visiting Mike Dolan's intermediate and advanced filmmaking classes to discuss a rough cut of my new film,” Modigliani said. “The students shared constructive, nuanced feedback, which shows they've learned to think critically about storytelling in general and filmmaking in particular. And we all enjoyed a fun conversation around the process of making feature documentaries. I loved this first experience at St. Stephens and I hope to come back again.”

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