PAPA Students’ Movie To Debut Feb. 23

As deadline quickly approaches, there is a sense of urgency. But panic hasn’t set in – yet.

Despite having to go through 30 hours of footage and create new music for a dance sequence, the group of students from the Public Academy for Performing Arts is hard at work putting the final touches on its film “PAPArazzi: The Movie.”

Students started writing the script for the film in late August and have filmed in locations around the city. The group filmed at 516 ARTS, The Guild Cinema, North Fourth Art Center and Soundstage 41.

The film will be screened three times at The Guild Cinema on Feb. 23. Proceeds will help the PAPA students with the costs to attend the CineYouth Film Festival in Chicago in May.

Su Hudson, director and the film and media instructor at PAPA, decided to give her class the challenge of putting together a film because of the talent in her class. She says that, in the past, students have worked on short films but felt like doing a feature-length film this year.

“I’ve had many of these students for years, and I thought that they were ready to tackle a film,” she explains. “Had it been another group of students, they may have not been ready. But each one of the students was ready for the challenge.”

And what the group came up with as a script is inspired from daily life. “PAPArazzi” is about a performing-arts school where Scout, played by Graham Hudson, is creating his film masterpiece for his senior project.

Scout, a filmmaker, has big plans to win one of the five scholarships his school offers to the top performing students, but, due to budget cuts, the school can only offer one scholarship. This creates a frenzy of tension between the different performing arts departments – particularly between the dance and film programs.

The dance instructor, Ms. Castone, played by Naomi Elizabeth Montoya, is certain that her star dancer Brandon, played by Kalin Wood, will take the prize. Film instructor, Ms. Sparks, played by Su Hudson, is equally assured that Scout will win this year – no matter the cost.

Graham says that, while the group got a head start on the script in late August, it has been through numerous revisions.

“As we were filming, the story began to take shape,” he says. “So we would add new parts in, and it’s really been a collaborative effort for all of us. We’ve learned to work together in getting it done.”

Wood was responsible for putting together choreography for the film. He says a lot of the ideas for moves come to him during his commute from Los Lunas to Albuquerque.

“I drive for 30-35 minutes a day to school,” he says. “The dance piece that’s in the film took me 50 minutes to put together.”

Su Hudson says that, while students filmed at the various locations, four cameras were running to capture the footage. The group decided to film that way, because filming was done guerrilla style.

“We had to ensure that we were getting every aspect captured,” she says. “We did get permission from the venues to shoot at the locations, but we don’t have any budget at all for the film.”

The final cut of the film will be at 55 minutes, and students have been using programs such as Final Cut Pro and FL Studio to piece the story together.

“We have a lot of work to do before we screen it for an audience,” she says. “The students have been working in class, through lunch and a little during some after-school sessions.”

On Feb. 23, mention “PAPArazzi: The Movie” at Il Vicino, 3403 E. Central, and it will donate 20 percent of the total bill that night to the PAPA fundraiser.

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