Students Produce Movie

Last semester all seventh graders studied Civics with Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. York and as part of the study, they learned about local government in their city of Homewood. They traveled by bus to the City Hall where they met with the mayor and toured the municipal complex.

Several of the Enrichment students including Mariam Yousif, Sydney Newman, Robert Lessley, Eric Klopack and others attended a city council meeting on a Monday evening in September as the city council and Mayor McCulley discussed the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2004. As the students approached the city hall that evening they met protesters as they marched up and down the sidewalk in front of the steps to the City Hall. Several TV cameras were on hand and a number of reporters. The students were anxious to get inside and find out what the big controversy was over. Soon, they found that it was all about the proposed budget and whether or not five positions with the Homewood Fire Department would be filled. One student named Eric Klopack became very interested in the procedures of the city government and how the budget for a huge city is decided. Over the next several months, he dedicated himself to the task of writing a screenplay about this real-life experience that he and his classmates had witnessed.

The script is finished and this month the cast was found in the chambers at Homewood City Hall posing as Mayor McCulley, City Council President Ginger Busby, and each city council member. The mayor's secretary was very helpful in allowing the students to enter the chambers at City Hall and sit in the actual chairs that are used by the city council members themselves. Mrs. Narro taped the scenes as the students acted them out in the chamber. Then, the students taped a scene outside the courthouse which will be the opening scene in the movie. It showed protesters out in front handing out pamphlets as the public (students posing) entered the courthouse. One student posed as a reporter from a local TV station as she interviewed people who were there to support the fireman. After the students returned to the school, they built the set for a few of the other scenes that needed to be taped. The movie is expected to be finished before the students are out of school for Spring Break.

Homewood Fire Department assisted in the student production,
scenes from the movie below.