The scene opens on two men sitting across from each other at a table. Between them are two gleaming goblets of wine. The man dressed in black pours poison in one of the glasses, hoping to outwit the other man and save his princess.
But it’s not “The Princess Bride.” It’s senior Addy Davis’ scene remake project for Dr. Josh Anderson’s History of Film class.
The project tasked the students with recreating a famous movie scene, making them as similar to the original scenes as possible, using nothing but their cell phones. Davis described the pre-filming process
“Getting actors wasn’t that hard because we’re [her group] involved in the theater department— the hard part was getting the props,” Davis said.
Davis described how her team had to paint and age the cups to make them look as close to the originals as possible. She also spoke about their difficulties finding a filming location.
“You would find it surprising how difficult it is to find a large rock out in an empty field,” Davis said.
The project was introduced at the beginning of the school year, with students selecting their scenes and three team members. Throughout the rest of the semester, students have been working on their projects on their own time, with check-ins in class occurring every few weeks. The project will come to its close in December with an “Academy Awards” ceremony at AMC theater.
Anderson explained his reasoning for introducing the project this year.
“I’m hoping they learn long-range planning and the ability to say, ‘I need to deliver a product in four months. That needs my constant effort throughout the semester,’” Anderson said.
The History of Film, which has over 100 students enrolled, meets during fourth hour in the auditorium. Although it was previously taught by both Anderson and theater teacher Alisha Morris when the school first opened, the state has always required that only teachers certified in speech and theater education be allowed to teach the class. As Olathe West grew, enrollment numbers for the class exploded.
“It [the class] kind of got big. And so they [administration] came to me and were like, ‘You’re going to teach five sections of History of Film, and I was like, ‘No, I am not watching ‘The Godfather’ five times in one day.’ So I came up with the idea to take everyone whose schedule allows it and put them all in fourth hour,” Anderson said.
The class teaches students about a wide array of elements of film and movies. Davis described what she has learned so far this year.
“We watch films and we go over that part in history— what was affecting those films. The introduction of color and sound into film was a really big part as well. Then we get into the modern day of film— it’s like more about culture, cultural significance of the film and stuff like that,” Davis said.
