High school film class has top billing

WEST JORDAN — Students at West Jordan High School this fall will learn how to make movies from Hollywood producers, cinematographers and screenwriters.

The school is the first in the nation to offer a class taught with interactive, Web-based filmmaking curriculum developed by a pair of Hollywood filmmakers.

"What we're doing is a fun class where you're expected to produce some fine art," said Darrin Fletcher, a co-founder of the program who has worked behind the scenes in a number of commercials, television shows and movies, including "The Sandlot" and "Dumb and Dumber."

His partner in Independent Student Media is Chet Thomas, a movie producer who has worked on such films as "Minority Report."

Students will learn about the filmmaking process from beginning to end, with access to online filmmaking advice and interviews from people in the industry.

For example, students enrolled in the class can go online and click on production designer Alex McDowell, who worked on "Fight Club" and "Cat in the Hat."

They can listen to an interview with McDowell or select a specific question, such as "How do you begin once you've read the script and talked to the director?"

Thomas and Fletcher so far have included interviews and advice from more than a dozen professionals, including cinematographers, script directors and editors.

"It's not just some schmo off the street who we asked, 'How do you write a screenplay?' " Fletcher said.

Thomas said after the program goes through its pilot year at West Jordan it will be expanded to high schools around the country and abroad.

School officials wanted to include the program as a way to hook kids' interest in something that develops skills in everything from writing and history to electronics and art, West Jordan assistant principal Michael Hughes said.

"It ties in with everything they're learning," Hughes said.

The high school sent two teachers to this summer's ISM training workshop, which is being taught at the school by Thomas and Fletcher.

"It was one of those things I was interested in, I believed in and I saw a need for all coming together," said art and photography teacher Mary Ann Hess, who will teach the class this fall. "I think it will be fun."

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