Hollywood is coming to Rouse High School. The theatre students are getting a taste of glory on the big screen by creating short films, showcasing them in April.

                “Everyone should come to Hollywood Night,” sophomore Kayla Harrison said. “It’s going to be awesome.”

                The Theatre II and III classes are currently writing, directing and editing short films, working through the process of real film writers. They began by coming up with a simple film idea. From there they took their best ideas and created a promotion packet full of information including a movie poster, the plot and budget.  

                “The promo packet was important because I wanted each and every student to come up with an idea, even though we couldn’t make 40 movies,” theatre teacher Stephanie Smith said.

                 After all the investors put their money into the movies, the classes split into groups of four. Each group voted and picked the movie they thought would be the best to make. They got together and wrote out a script complete with dialogue, directions and camera angles.

                “Script writing gives you an idea of the entire movie,” Smith said. “Every movie, good or bad, comes from the script.”

                After the scripts were edited and finalized the group took them and created a story board to display the camera angles for the movies. The story board sets up every camera angle for every scene so the students know where to set the camera.

                “Movies are a visual thing,” Smith said. “So you need to see it in picture form to know what you’re doing.”

                The filming started March 1. The groups have been filming all over campus in full costume and makeup. Some groups have even been walking around dressed as zombies.

                “They’re all green and purple and black,” sophomore Paige Smith said. “It involves moss, hairspray and blood that taste like mint.”

                Once the groups have finished filming they will take the footage into editing and put it all together. The theatre department will put on a red carpet event April 18 to show all of the short films to the public. The students will dress to the nines and walk the red carpet at the premiere night.

                “This is our first time to attempt this so we are excited,” Smith said. “I hope next year the [Theatre] III-IV classes will be mostly film. In this modern world there is a lot of film work for actors.”