Violence, Prof. Quack & a zombie

The Highland Park Library Teen Film Festival screened a variety of movies by local teens today. Some movies, like my son’s, were fiction mysteries. One well-executed film by a Franklin Township teen was about community efforts to stop local violence. A few of the Highland Park teens have been taking a film class in Princeton, and their films were highly edited and quite artsy. The range of creativity one can produce with a camera is striking. Michelle Reasso, the hard-working, encouraging teen librarian, worked with her son and another teen to create a trailer for a zombie movie. She remarked how difficult it was to produce a film. First one had to come up with a plot, then one had to decide where and when to film and find others to be characters in the film, then one had to edit the film. She said everyone wanted to be a zombie, but when the time came to actually shoot the movie, no one was available (except for a teen filmmaker’s father, who reluctantly took on the role).

Here’s a picture of one of my son’s films, with his main character Professor Quack, who solves mysteries complete with British accent somewhere in London (actual filming is done in my basement):

With the full audience in the room, there was lots of enthusiasm for a teen film festival next year. After all, the zombie movie is so far only a trailer…