The setting:

The scene opens in Copper Hills High School’s Film 3 class. After months of the grueling demands of movie-making, students are thrilled to premiere “Fixing Benny”--a full length feature film they wrote, directed, filmed and edited--at a local movie theater some time in late May/early June.

“I love seeing it all come together and seeing a finished product,” senior Ethan Edwards, the film’s director said. “One of the things that's awesome about film is you put in so much effort in something and you actually get something in return, something that’s always there, a physical--digital--thing that you can see. There's a representation of all the hard work you put in.”

The plot:

 Film teacher Joshua Oman believes CHHS is the only public school in the nation that shoots a full-length feature film each year. This is their fourth film, but his first at CHHS. After 25 years of working in commercials, TV and film, Oman left Hollywood and returned home to Utah to replace Kamiko Ho’okano, the film teacher who had helped students make three movies before leaving CHHS last year to work in the film industry.

“He infused this place with passion, and I came, and I'm bringing the skills,” Oman said. “I'm just so grateful they had three years to work out the bumps on their previous films, because we're definitely standing on their shoulders.”

Oman’s film industry knowledge and resources raised the bar on this year’s production, students said. This year they are following industry practices and safety standards and using upgraded equipment including a high resolution professional cinematographer’s camera. The film had 10 shooting locations compared to last year’s three.

“We're networking a lot more, and this is becoming a bigger and bigger thing than we expected,” senior Jack Bowler said. “We've got a lot of people supporting this.” 

Each of the 19 class members had a specific role in filming, logistics, post production or promotion. Oman was impressed with the students’ skills and dedication to the film. During the intense nine weeks of filming, students were working 14 hour days between school and the movie.

“Those are official Hollywood hours and these students are doing it while they're studying for the ACT and getting ready to graduate,” Oman said.

The Credits:

Script writer: Senior McKay Bowler worked for months on the script he describes as a John Hughes-type of comedy about a boy named Benny who hires a rebel girl as a consultant to teach him how to be more likeable to his peers. 

Director: Ethan Edwards, a senior, said his job is to understand how the story needs to be told. “It’s a universal story about finding yourself, and I hope that everyone sees a little bit of themselves in Benny,” he said. “The struggle of finding who you are and balancing what's expected of you versus what you want to do, something we all go through, and something that currently, as a high schooler, I'm living through right now. So I hope to put into words all that emotion and feelings.”

His role also comes with the responsibility of coordinating and communicating with all of the various departments and setting the set culture.

“It’s all eyes on you all the time,” Edwards said. “Obviously you’ve got to have a strong work ethic, because you're who everyone looks to to get stuff done.”

 Gaffer: Senior Jack Bowler said his responsibility to set up the lighting was the most time consuming job on the set. “It’s a lot of working with the director, working with the cinematographer, making sure I know his angles and I know the director's vision, and then I get the rest of the freedom on the creative part of the lighting,” he said.

Audio/Music Director: Kai Hansen, also a senior, took the lead of the audio team. He wrote the film’s score, recorded himself playing each of the instrument’s parts and edited the music. He had experience from working on the music for last year's film and also was a member of the only all high school team in last year’s SLC 48 Hour Film Project Competition in which he won Best Music.

“I'm not a huge musical guy--I like rock music--but being able to broaden my horizons with things like a musical sequence has been super cool,” Hansen said.

Film Editor: Ayden Farnsworth was the film editor for both this year’s and last year’s movies. For a two-minute scene, he sifted through about two hours of footage to find the best angles, line delivery and character reactions, which he then fit together, syncing movements between camera angles. His innate grasp of pacing enabled him to fit scenes together. “It's kind of just figuring out what makes you not feel bored when you're watching,” Farnsworth said.

Assistant Editor and Digital Imaging Tech: Isaac Kongsayasane kept tabs on the film footage, getting it from on-location to the school and ensuring it was backed-up and organized. 

Director of Photography/Cinematography: Aaron Galgoci got to use a professional camera to film this year’s movie in 8K definition (though it has 12K capability). “This was a huge upgrade,” he said. “Our old cameras were 6Ks so we’re shooting at a better quality than those, and it’s a lot smaller and a lot more travel size.”

Other students had roles handling logistics, budget, public relations, set design, etc.

The Next Chapter:

 For the remainder of the school year, the film students will be learning about scriptwriting and preparing for next year’s film project. Oman hopes to eventually include the whole school and even other schools to be a part of future films. He also encourages his students to get involved in the film industry in any way that interests them.

“The film industry is this little microcosm of everything else,” Oman said. "It doesn't matter what you do, you could do it in the film industry if you want to.”

Many of the students who worked on “Fixing Benny" will be graduating and Oman believes they are well-prepared for their next chapter. Even those not going into movie-making have learned leadership, communication and managerial skills that will benefit them in any career. For those students who have ambitions to work in the film industry, he provides encouragement, letters of recommendation, advice about film schools and networking contacts, because as a graduate of Jordan High School and the University of Utah, he sees his younger self when he looks at his students.

“I feel like I'm kind of passing that torch,” Oman said. “These are all Utah high school students that want to do film, and I can tell them how to do it.”