Eighth
graders Evan Stroh and Eric Laurent both play Little League
baseball. So, they thought that sport would provide a good
subject for their movie contest entry.
Their movie, "All About a Curveball," was a first-place
winner in the 2007 Show Me A Movie contest sponsored by
the Greater St. Louis Cooperating School Districts.
Evan Stroh |
Evan and Eric both live in Ballwin and are students at
Parkway Southwest Middle School. Their movie was judged
best in the Show Me Something New category for middle school
students.
The two boys play on different baseball teams in the Chesterfield
area. Both are pitchers and it was natural for them to think
about that position when looking for a movie plot.
Recent health rule changes by Little League officials on
pitch-counts and limits on curveballs by young pitchers
made their movie timely. Both of them said they don't throw
curveballs because of stress on their still-growing bodies.
Eric Laurent |
The new Little League rules limit both the number of pitches
in any game and how long a kid has to rest between games.
One key scene in their movie involves a film clip of former
St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Jeff Weaver throwing a curveball.
Fourteen-year-old Eric said, "The film clip was in slow-motion
and was at a perfect angle to show how he turns his wrist
to throw a curve. You can see exactly what he is doing."
He said they were able to download the clip for free from
an Internet resource called "pitchclips.com."
Evan, who is also 14, said, "Our movie explains the physics
involved in throwing a curveball." He said the Weaver clip
shows the stress put on the arm when making the ball spin
to get the curving action.
The movie also shows the effect of air resistance in making
the ball curve.
Their movie was 2 ½ minutes long but had 12 different scenes,
including both the title page and the film credits. Contest
rules say the movies can't be over three minutes long.
The boys shared all facets of the writing, filming, acting
and editing of the movie.
Eric said, "We both wrote, depending on which of us was
in which scene. We were pretty much equals in terms of who
was shown in the movie."
Evan said, "When one of us was in a scene, the other was
filming."
Both of the kids said they weren't nervous while acting
in the movie. Eric said, "Both of us have done school plays."
Other scenes in the movie showed close-ups of how a pitcher
holds the ball and their different arm positions during
the pitching motion.
Evan said they ended up with much more material that was
used in the finished movie. "We had to shoot some scenes
four or five times before getting it right," he said.
Eric said, "Some scenes had to be re-shot because there
was background noise we didn't want."
He said he considered getting a satisfactory ending to
the movie to be one of the biggest problems. "We had to
explain each of the scenes on the credits page," he said.
They said they had about 15 minutes worth of material ready
before the editing started. That meant they used only about
20 per cent of available material in the final version.
Both mentioned the extensive paperwork involved in getting
their entry ready for the Show Me A Movie contest. Evan
said, "The contest paperwork was the hardest."
The kids used Apple Computer's "IMovie" software to do
their editing. They did all their work on the movie as part
of an accelerated program, taught by teacher Terri Moore.
They said they were surprised by the amount of time involved
in the whole movie-making process. Eric said, "The time
and effort that it takes to make a movie was something."
Asked about any changes they'd make if they did the movie
over, Evan said, "I'd condense the transitions between scenes."
He said he thought the special effects they used in transitions
took too much time.
Both of the boys said their favorite subjects in school
were math and science.
Evan said he hopes for a career in aeronautical engineering.
Eric is looking at architecture because of his interest
in building design.
