In a dark basement cluttered with computer monitors, laptops and miscellaneous sound equipment, Windham students Ryan Pottle, Alex Karantza, Nick Langley and Matt Hodge review the final product of a semester-long obsession – a film about the absurdity of high school entitled “The Final Grade.”
For Pottle and Karantza who graduated this June, the film was both the final grade of their high school career and an opportunity to produce a short film for a student competition as part of the annual Maine International Film Festival.
Huddled over the computer screen, the filmmakers make side comments as the film rolls on.
“We went through so many versions of this movie,” Katrantza says as the opening credits are typed on screen by an old typewriter.
“Final Grade” follows the story of three high school students who are given “Herculean tasks” that they must complete in three days or risk failing out of high school.
With the strict deadline always looming, the three students – a computer whiz, science genius and aspiring writer – slowly start to unravel, as does the world around them in absurd ways.
There are meteor blasts, government conspiracy, a dream sequence and a car chase down the roads of Windham with secret agents firing gunshots out the window in pursuit.
What’s remarkable about “Final Grade” is the cinematic quality of this student film. Its varying camera angles and trick cinematography draw you inside the world of these students and show the patience and detail these filmmakers took to grab every shot.
The film, which Pottle describes as a “satire,” pokes fun at the bureaucracy of high school.
Problems with computer security and Web site blocking lead to the students’ frustration, hidden cameras track the computer whiz who is being followed by the “Administration” and the aspiring writer must suffer the irony of having to walk from class to the school’s main office in order to get a hall pass.
“People may not think it’s funny, but we think it’s hilarious,” Pottle said.
Though filmed in three months, “Final Grade” is the accumulation of years and years of playing with camcorders and making short movies for school projects, said longtime friends Pottle and Karantza.
“The more we learn and the more we play, the better we understand what we’re doing,” Pottle said. “This film has kind of been a turning point for us. Now we know how difficult it is to make a movie.”
Pottle and Karantza approached their video production teacher Jeff Bell last fall about pursuing an independent study in which they would shoot a film. Bell agreed, but said simply that they wouldn’t pass if they didn’t produce a movie.
Joining them in this endeavor was Langley as director, Hodge as cinematographer with his Panasonic digital video camera and a handful of fellow high school students as actors and tech crew.
Most of the film was shot on the Windham High School campus with permission from the school administration and several teachers playing roles in the film.
The students often worked late at the high school, filming until the janitors kicked them out.
“We actually got yelled at for being at school too late,” Langley said.
Everything in “Final Grade” is tailor-made for the film – from animation graphics and explosions to the soundtrack laid down by Windham band RGP and a film score by Kevin MacKaye who also plays the role of the writer in the film.
And like the characters in “Final Grade,” these young filmmakers raced to complete the project before a June 1 deadline for the Maine International Film Festival.
“Final Grade” will be shown there on July 22 in a student competition taking part during the annual film festival in Waterville.
The young filmmakers are pleased with the final version of the film, though they can’t help but comment on a few scenes they’d cut here or add there.
When asked about their influences, they rattle off a litany of names: directors Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick and the mad-cap humor of Monty Python, a British comedy troupe.
“If you watch a film for how they do it, then you know why they do it,” said Hodge, who watches films for the styles of camera angles and composition.
Teacher Bell, who granted the filmmakers their final grade, is amazed by the film and what the students were able to accomplish.
“It’s really remarkable at this age doing what they’ve done,” Bell said. “And that’s a legacy that they’ve left for upcoming filmmakers at Windham High School.”
Pending review of the film by public access operator Jim Webb, “Final Grade” will also be shown next month on public access Channel 7.
These young Windham filmmakers just submitted “The Final Grade,” a high school satire, to the Maine International Film Festival. From left, Alex Karantza, Nick Langley, Ryan Pottle and, center holding his video camera, Matt Hodge.Send questions/comments to the editors.
