Terricula.

One of the countless reasons I love my school is the fact that they provide us with opportunities that we couldn't get anywhere else.

One of these opportunities is what we call "Winterim," a three week period right after Christmas Break, during which we take a break from our normal core classes and take classes specific to certain areas such as Intuitive Design, Musical Theater, History of Baseball, Insanity, etc. It gives the students a chance to learn about something that they probably wouldn't be able to learn otherwise. This year, I chose to take the Intro to Film class. In this class, we all had the chance to learn about cinematography and camera work, directing, acting, and editing, all while making a film. It was headed and written by my two favorite teachers, Mr. Tanner and Mr. Golsan, and it was a blast! This year, they decided to write a horror film which we called, "Terricula," which is the Latin word for a fright, or the means of exciting terror. It was about a group of students who believe there are ridiculous conspiracies going on in their school, like their teacher being a werewolf, a warehouse full of clones of problem students, and a witch who migrated with the Mormon pioneers, yada yada. It was completely hilarious, and only half scary, but it was sure fun to make. I personally had many jobs, and was able to work on several scenes, including one where a small group of us travelled downtown late at night to get some shots, and didn't get home until almost 4 in the morning! It was three weeks of firsts for me. I even had a small part at the end of the movie with the iconic Mr. Sorensen. I learned so much about filmmaking, like just how long it takes and how precise one has to be to make a shot work. I got to record a song on the piano, and my dear friend Claire and I were asked to record some songs for the soundtrack. We recorded a cover of The White Stripes' "Little Ghost," and TV On the Radio's, "Wolf Like Me." (If you want to take a listen, they're on YouTube - here). That was probably my favorite part of the whole process, composing our versions of the songs, and recording them in the "Hobbit Hole" in Claire's basement.

Now, the coolest part of this whole thing didn't happen during those three weeks, but TODAY! My teachers both volunteer at the Broadway Centre Cinemas Downtown, in connection with the Salt Lake Film Society. They arranged for our movie to premier at the theater at 9 am this morning. It was such a wonderful experience! We got to see all of our hard work and toils on the big screen! It was probably my one and only movie premier, so I made sure to dress appropriately. (And by dress appropriately, I mean Oscar status. I know, I know). We had a great turnout, and it was received very well! I'm so proud of our project, and the people I was able to associate with in pursuing it.

Movie poster designed by Claire Matheson