Royal Oak — Around 50 of Michigan’s youngest new filmmakers walked the red carpet on Wednesday for one of this year’s most exclusive theater events.
The elementary and middle schoolers were the finalists in a competition that challenged them to create their own movie trailers. At Emagine Royal Oak, their work was shown on the big screen, then judged by an expert panel.
The program was a collaboration between the nonprofit arm of Detroit-based Folktellers Studios, which produces family-focused books, films and animation, and theater chain Emagine Entertainment.
More than 1,300 students took part in the project, which aimed to spark imagination and strengthen literacy skills. The participants each read the same novel — “Phases of the Moon,” the first book in Josef Bastian’s award-winning fantasy series, “Excerpts from an Unknown Guidebook,” published by Folktellers.
Heritage Elementary School in Stockbridge won first place, Addams Elementary in Royal Oak won second place and another team from Heritage Elementary snagged third place.
“I have four kids; three of my sons were reluctant readers,” said Bastian. “I was like, ‘If I can write a fantasy series that reluctant boys would read, anyone could read it. This series was really written to drive literacy.”
The young filmmakers then wrote, shot and edited their own 2- to 3-minute trailers inspired by the book’s characters, settings and themes.
Each group put their own charmingly amateur spin on the tale about a young boy and his journey across dimensions to battle shadowy forces. One group used Legos and backgrounds drawn in marker to bring the story to life. Another employed heavy use of special effects and a green screen to showcase the story’s fantastical elements. One group of boys focused heavily on the book’s basketball game scene.
Benny Cyr, a sixth grader from St. John Lutheran School in Rochester, said he appreciated the book’s action elements, especially the fight scenes. Ahead of the screening, he was looking forward to seeing his work on the big screen.
“It’s gonna be an accomplishment with my buddies and it’s an honor,” Benny said.
Other students, mostly dressed in formal but fun suits or dresses for the occasion, said they enjoyed working on the project, though it was a lot of work.
“We worked super hard and it took us a long time,” said Alex Crow, a fifth grader at Stockbridge Community Schools in Stockbridge. “We did fight a lot on the idea of the trailer but at the end of the day, we got it all together. I’m very proud of my team.”
As he looked around the theater lobby, full of excited families smiling for photographers and snacking on pop and popcorn, Bastian beamed.
“This is what I hoped it would be,” he said.
After the screening, a panel of celebrity judges selected their top three teams. Judges included Detroit-based film critic and screenwriter Terri Lee Chandler; filmmaker, actor and Alliance Studios International CEO Carl Weyant; and Emagine Entertainment Inc. Chairman Emeritus Paul Glantz.
“I was very impressed with the quality of the films and the talent and just the imagination of all the kids, and that’s what I was really looking for,” said Chandler. “They really rose to the occasion.”
Following the awards ceremony, the kids got an early look at the pilot episode for a new streaming series based on the “Excerpts from an Unknown Guidebook” series.
Folktellers Studio’s works are all set in the same universe — its leaders liken it to the Marvel Universe — which they see as a way to get kids immersed in their stories, which can be difficult in the age of ultra-short entertainment forms like TikTok.
“Everyone’s got a screen now,” Basitan said.
Folktellers tried to launch a similar program in 2019, but COVID-19 derailed the project.
Steven Sadler, co-owner of Folktellers, said he struggled mightily with reading as a young person due to dyslexia, so literacy is a cause close to his heart.
“Michigan’s 45th ranked in the United States in literacy right now,” Sadler said. “I don’t know how we got there, but we need to change it.”
mreinhart@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan students see their film projects on the big screen
Reporting by Max Reinhart, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Max Reinhart, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
