The Aurora Film Academy lays the foundation for creativity

By Jillian LeBlanc 

Chris Cummins and Thomas Kegler teach creativity at East Aurora High School in three classes, under the umbrella of moviemaking.

The Aurora Film Academy (AFA) is a series of three classes, which simultaneously work together to create a tangible product. Devised of a creative writing course, a drama class, and a film/editing workshop, seniors at East Aurora High School mimic the film industry on a smaller scale.

“The Aurora Film Academy is a combination, or should I say, an amalgamation, of three classes that go through the process of making a film. The creative writing portion, for scripting; the dramatic portion for acting and directing; and of course the filming and the film editing portion, for creating the final product,” Cummins said.

The initial idea came from a fellow English teacher, Jason Zevenbergen but Cummins, Kegler, and Christine Burke brought the concept to life. Taking about a year to fine tune details and pitch the idea to the school board, this experimental program was put into effect in the fall of 2012.

“It was born out of necessity,” Cummins said.

The teachers said that with budget cuts, important information will be lost due to certain classes being cut. They wanted to insure that future high school students are given the opportunity to be creative in multiple forms.

“We’re always, as teachers, encouraged to do cross-curricular projects, which is extremely unfeasible, just by the nature of the way the schedules are structured. It’s not practical. This was a way of making it tangible,” Kegler said.

Cross-curricular projects are beneficial because they allow for critical thinking, which is a skill colleges covet. While AFA is focusing on a specific area of study – movie making – it is teaching students to think beyond a single class, or a small assignment. Students must apply their work from one class to the second, and third. They are forced to think broadly, despite their comfort level.

“Everybody has different ability levels in each of these classes, or each of these strands,” Cummins said. “Some students already have editing capabilities, some students have barely turned on a computer. Some students have been in television commercials, which have been seen on TV, some students have never acted in their life. Some students passed AP English in flying colors; some students are just hoping to pass English. So the challenge sometimes is teaching all the different ability levels in all three of the classes.”

Students vary in experience, and natural ability, but Cummins and Kegler attempt to teach more than skills. While those aspects are important in the professional realm of media, both teachers aim to give students an introduction with practice in less obvious skillsets.

“I think that students practice more real life applicable communication skills in this class than in any other class that I’ve taught,” Cummins said. “I would contend that those kinds of skills are infinitely more important to prospective employers than some of the other skills I teach, in terms of grammar.”

According to Cummins, students learn to effectively communicate, something that cannot be overtly taught. This is a skill that is achieved by doing it, and students unknowingly hone this ability through some difficult projects.

“They are given challenges that mirror career-based challenges, which includes reliance on the team. It includes a tangible follow-through to a tangible product that’s going to be shared with the community,” Kegler said.

“Teamwork is such an important skill to have. It’s the nature of give and take, and a real work environment,” Cummins added.

Teamwork is essential for college projects, careers, as well as interpersonal relationships. Students work together to devise unique products, learning how to comfortably collaborate. Both teachers expressed that teamwork never goes away, and if students become comfortable doing it in this setting, while completing challenging work, they will find much success in the future.

 “The next big stage of development is going to be new computers, which we’re working on right now. Once that happens, the efficiency of that will allow us to do more, and do bigger, and better things,” Kegler said.

Students are limited, only being allowed to access certain programs. The computers are too slow and old to run programs such as AfterEffects, a popular effect application used by moviemakers. With new computers, students can learn more than editing video, but also learn how to manipulate footage, and create images from scratch, using a green screen.

“It’s a living thing, it’s always evolving,” said Kegler.

Technology has only gotten better with time, and AFA has improved their equipment with each year. They hope to keep improving, and to allow students to utilize the best tools possible. AFA serves as a steppingstone, an introduction to a field that teens don’t usually know about.

“I think that this class has the potential, or this academy has the potential to be something even more than it is right now,” Cummins said.

The students of AFA are given an opportunity to be creative, and are gently pushed to work outside of their comfort zones. They are prepared for college, being treated as adults, and are expected to work professionally. Above all else, the Academy serves to help seniors find direction.

“The majority of students that take it originally think that it’s a fun thing to be a part of, but in the end, I would say a lot of students decide that ‘there’s some aspect of this that I could see myself doing,’” Kegler said. “All we do is plant the seed, and hope it grows.”

email: j.omerine@gmail.com