Ten Williston students are getting a small taste of Hollywood.

Under Mr. Hing’s instruction, the film club and the students in the film-making class get the chance to experience professional film making with a crew coming from New York City.

Hing announced the contest of script-writing in November, the winning entry of which would be made into a short film.  Daniel Phakos, a Williston alumni who is now a professional film maker, came up with this project along with Hing to benefit the students interested in film making as a potential career.

Daniel Phakos graduated from Williston in 2006. He currently works as a professional film maker with his crew based in New York City. Phakos usually takes up the positions of script writer and director. One of his works included the Doritos commercial called “Lucky Mirror”.

Phakos was hoping,” said Mr. Hing, “to give the students who want to study film making in college to see how much difference the professional process is from the way they have been doing it on their own.”

“This project is more than just for fun. It’s not an easy task, a lot of work was put into it to make it look good and even a professional film maker still have to improvise sometimes,” Hing said. “And since a lot of students who love film making but don’t have the courage to pursue it because their parents want them to become bankers not artists, it helps them to see Daniel, who used to sit in the same class room they were sitting and he’s making a living out of what he loves”

After announcing the contest during assembly, Hing and Phakos received many scripts from the students. They had to go through a careful selection process in order to choose the best script, which belonged to Aidan Bourbonnais.

“Aidan’s script talks a lot about the danger of using phones while driving,” said junior Kira Bixby, “which is an important message since there are many Williston students driving to schools every day.”

Kira is the director of the movie and also the president of the film club. Both students from the club and film classes will participate in the  shooting process.

“When we are doing a project in class, it’s mostly self-taught by using a camera and filming what you like,” said Kira. “But when we are in a professional setting like this, we have to follow the schedule, shot list, fixing the lightning and have great responsibility. We get a taste of more than just what a class can give us.”

The last two shots will be done during the weekend of the end of April. And the final product will be shown at the Williston Film Festival on May 10. “For this year’s film festival, we are thinking about investing in more things,” said Kira. “It will be a more exciting experience than the previous year.”