Max Highsmith, Kathryn Bradley and Nicholas Willig hope their variety of skills
help them produce a winner in this month's Show-Me a Movie
competition. One of those skills is Kathryn's ability to
hold a camera steady.
The three kids are 8th graders at Parkway Southwest Middle
School. This is their first try at the Show-Me contest.
But, teacher Terri Moore has had success with teams in the
past.
And the kids say they have other skills that should help
with this film project.
Max Highsmith |
For instance, 13-year-old Max finished second last year
in a claymation movie competition among St. Louis area kids.
Fourteen-year-old Kathryn took part in a movie-making camp
last summer.
And 13-year-old Nicholas has attended a two-week space
exploration camp at Huntsville, Ala. His successful application
entry included his plan for colonizing the Moon.
But, both of the boys admit Kathryn has one other skill
that might be very important. She knows how to keep the
camera steady while filming their movie entry.
Nicholas Willig |
Max said, "When I made my claymation movie, I always had
to prop the camera on a table or chair to keep it steady."
Nicholas admitted he isn't too steady with a camera either.
But, he said his space camp experience helped him in the
research for the Show-Me movie. Their movie explores the
debate over whether Pluto should be dropped as the 9th planet
in our galaxy.
Kathryn Bradley |
The deadline for Show Me a Movie entries is Dec. 18. Winners
will show their entries at the Midwest Education Conference
in St. Louis Feb. 27-28.
There are four categories: Show-Me Something New, Show-Me
a Story, Show-Me a Challenge and Show-Me Your Community.
There are divisions for elementary, middle and high school
teams.
The two-minute films will be judged on contest, creativity,
storyboarding, videography and reflection.
All three of the Southwest Middle School kids will be actors
in their film.
Their script involves giving pros and cons of whether Pluto
should be classed a planet.
Kathryn said their movie won't take a stand on the issue.
"We just present the facts and leave it up to members of
the audience to decide what they believe," she said.
Max said the beginning of the movie contains the only special
effects. "We took pictures of the planets off the internet
and used zoom photography to speed through the planets.
Then, we slow down when we come to Pluto," he said.
Nicholas said Pluto has had a checkered past as a planet.
He said it was discovered in 1930 "but the telescope they
used then made it seem bigger than it was." As the telescopes
improved, scientists found that Pluto was smaller, he added.
As a result, there has been continuous debate over whether
Pluto deserves to be one of the nine planets in the Earth's
galaxy. Recently, another round of that debate erupted.
Max said his experience making the claymation movie helped
him pack a lot of plot into a short film. He said his main
character, Dan, decided to research a school science project
on dinosaurs by taking a time-machine trip back in history.
"But, Dan made a mistake and the machine sent him into
the future. Then, he used their time machine to get back
into history to see the dinosaurs," Max said.
"I was surprised how I got all of that action into a three-minute
film," he said.
Max said he needed three clay copies of his main character,
Dan. Motion is achieves by shooting a video film of a series
of still pictures with slight changes in body shapes in
each picture.
Continual moving of arms and legs creates a lot of wear
and tear on the clay bodies. "Dan's body wore out and I
needed spares," Max said.
Kathryn said her summer camp team made two movies. "One
was a book review; the other was a murder mystery," she
said. In the mystery film, her team left it up to the audience
to figure out who the killer was.
Kathryn will play her guitar as part of the background
music for the Pluto movie. She'll play a song she wrote
herself. She has played guitar and bass in everything from
her own "garage band" to a Webster University symphony orchestra.
Nicholas said their film will use music from a "Planets"
symphonic series. "There are eight pieces because it was
written before Pluto was discovered," he said.
Max and Nicholas also play musical instruments. Max plays
cello in the school's honors orchestra and takes piano lessons.
Nicholas also takes cello lessons.
