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RUHS Students Fight
A "Star Wars" movie filmed in Randolph? Well, yes, sort of, and its world premiere is next Thursday night, at Chandler Music Hall. It’s a free event and everyone’s invited. The film short, "Tobacco’s Grievous Attack on Randolph," was produced by a team of Randolph Union High School students, working with James Valastro and Rob Williams of Meme Films. Meme Films, according to Valastro, a professional videographer, uses "the exciting process of making movies" to teach media literacy to kids. Media literacy means being savvy about the power of media—from million-dollar TV ads to product placement in movies—to influence peoples’ thoughts and buying habits. "Grievous Attack," according to Valastro, spins out a symbolic and fanciful tale about the tobacco industry’s high-tech assault on an intrepid band of high school students. The kids, the story goes, are in tobacco’s crosshairs because their efforts have contributed to a steep drop in teen smoking, despite the industry’s $12-15 billion annual advertising budget. The RUHS/Meme Films production, funded by a grant, had a much more modest budget. The eight-minute film that RUHS actors and filmmakers made is in the "Star Wars genre," Valastro said, and includes a stunning cast of light sabers and some impressive film tricks. However, the short opens as a modest video about "another day at school" for the teen-aged members of a "public service announcement club." The production style morphs from "bad TV" to "a fabulous movie with special effects," when the tobacco industry sics some intergalactic bad guys—three star destroyers, to be precise—on the Randolph teens. There are even sub-titles in this production, as RUHS exchange student Alice Astegiano speaks her lines in Italian. Not incidentally, the student actors and filmmakers picked up lots of tobacco facts and a sophisticated "making media skill set" as they worked on the production. And, of course, their media literacy advanced by light years. It was all "totally new" for sophomore Joe Fiorillo, who got to handle some of the $20,000 in video equipment that Valastro brought in, and has "some run-on" appearances on the film. (He’s the one who picks up the ion orb cannon when the attack begins.) Fiorillo said he decided to sign up for the film project after listening to media educator Dr. Rob Williams, who is Valastro’s Meme Films partner. In a 75-minute school assembly in January, Williams talked about understanding media and advertising, and specifically how alcohol and tobacco are packaged to be interesting to minors. "It was an eye-opener," Fiorillo said. Gala Premiere "Grievous Attack" will be premiered at Chandler Music Hall at a gala event next Thursday night, starting at 7 p.m. The evening will include performances by RUHS’s middle and high school choruses, its jazz band, and readings by student "performance poetry artists, according to RUHS Assoc. Principal Dave Barnett. The CSO—RUHS’s Community School Organization—will provide intermission refreshments. Valastro will be there too, and he will give a talk about the importance of teaching media literacy to young people. Before the "big" film is screened, the audience will also get to see a five-minute "The Making Of" film. Here’s a hint on how "Grievous Attack" ends: "Tobacco," Valastro says, "made a big mistake." That’s hardly suprising he said, because "Kids love being smarter than advertisers. They hate being lied to." "The kids in Randolph," Valastro added, "were extraordinary." There’s More "Grievous Attack" will be expanded in the near future as Meme Films travels to a different Vermont high school for another production round. The new scene, according to Valastro, will feature "an intergalactic gathering of historians," who will reflect on the day Randolph was attacked. Action scenes, involving a "droid army," are also in the works. |
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