"Last Week" Trailer Released

Just a quick note today...

You read about my crazy week filming my latest documentary in my previous post, but now I am releasing the trailer for the film. Traditionally, the film is completed FIRST, then a trailer produced, but in order to take advantage of a marketing opportunity, I had to switch those around for this one. So, it may be a bit early, but at least you will be able to get a visual look at my week and the film yet to come. Enjoy!

Telling the Story.. Regardless

Two years ago, I was sitting in a middle school gym, watching my daughter performing in her choir concert. This was a special occasion. Her choir teacher had been teaching choir at the school for the past 30 years and was now getting ready to retire. This was his final performance of his long career. As I watched this whole event unfold, with tears, with flowers, with standing ovations and many hugs, I wondered what it must feel like for him. Was he relieved it was all over? Was he sad to see it all go? He had obviously made a huge difference in the lives of thousands of students.. but what kind of things were going through his head as he had prepared that week for his last show?

The filmmaker in me was very intrigued by this, and as I drove home I thought ahead to my own mother's retirement just two years later in 2009. Her story was similar.. teacher for the last 40 years. She took over the schools speech and debate team in the early nineties and turned it into the most dominating speech program in the state for ten years, with teams of 75 students. She had taken over the drama program, staging elaborate spring musicals each year. But she had done all this with the philosophy of "teach the student, not the subject" that had made her one of the most popular teachers in the high school for years. So that begged the question from me.. what would it feel like for her as she prepared for and performed her final musical of her career? Suddenly I had a story that I felt could make for an interesting and inspiring documentary film and I began to make my travel plans.

And so, last Saturday I flew to Colorado with all my film gear, ready to document the week leading up to this final performance at the high school I had graduated from YEARS ago (returning there after all these years was a bizarre experience in and of itself..) The musical was "The Sound of Music" my mom's all time favorite that she had saved for her final year. The week's schedule was packed filming all the rehearsals and the interaction between the kids as well as driving around the state interviewing former students, friends, colleagues, the cast, everyone that I could track down to give insight into the story.

This whole experience was a bit different for me. In my past sports related films, the typical "emotional" moments came when the key player on the team is injured at the end of the season and the rest of the team must figure out how to pull together to play and win without them. But this story was a very different beast as it had a much more in depth emotional story to go along with it. Most of these kids and teachers had been involved in the random school hostage crisis and the in-school killing of one of their classmates, Emily Keyes, 3 years ago (read about it here). The girl that was killed was one of my Mom's speech students and several of the lead cast members in the play had been the hostages. There was still a lot these people were dealing with from that event, causing some very emotional interviews. I certainly was not used to watching both men and women break down in tears on camera and I left many of the interviews just feeling emotionally exhausted. While that killing was not a HUGE part of the story, it was still an important part that had to be told as my Mom was one of the instrumental people that day, in helping rally the students together to cope, and in pulling the community back together with her speech at the funeral.

So I had my job... I had to document the events of the week.. regardless of how they unfolded. My goal with the project was to be realistic, not some reality show type of story where events are exaggerated to create more drama. I just wanted to tell the story of what my mother had done and the difference she had made. I wanted to visually see what she went through.. the stress, the emotional swings, and the chaos that has made the final week of prep before the spring musical become dubbed "Hell week". I was worried everything would go smoothly and I would be left without a compelling story to tell.. turns out.. I had nothing to fear.

It started first thing Monday morning with a freak snow storm, sending my mom into a panic that school (and her biggest rehearsal of the week) would be canceled.

Luckily all arrived at school, but that rehearsal was so lousy, it about sent my mom over the edge and she doubted this play would come together on time.

Then there was the truly wacky, unexpected events of the week... the two kids that attempted (for whatever reason) to crawl up into the air ducts above the auditorium (I think they were trying to ditch class) only to have one almost fall through the ceiling, as it gave away under their weight. Luckily, he caught himself and got out, preventing a potential deadly fall to the concrete auditorium floor three stories below. (the poor students who were alarmed watching his leg suddenly come bursting through the ceiling in a crash, were rather upset, however..). Then there was the cast member that was standing between two cars on a sloped driveway. When one of the cars accidently rolled backwards, she was pinned between the two cars, causing quite a bit of damage to her legs making her unable to perform. Soon I had to wonder if every time the phone rang I needed to start filming, as we never knew what to expect next.

Stress and anxiety filled the cast as everyone prepared for opening night. A week's worth of rough rehearsals was weighing heavily and no one knew if they could pull it off. But to their credit, the Thursday night opening show went off without a hitch, leaving everyone excited and ready to do it all over again for the next 2 nights.

By the time Saturday night came along.. I was very pleased with myself. I knew I had the story, now captured on camera, that I had been looking for. I had captured the events of the week, the thoughts of the students and others through their interviews, I had the emotions.. from sheer happiness and pride to the emotional breakdowns of saying goodbyes.. and I had the emotional element from showing how everyone had recovered from the Emily Keyes tragedy. It was a good story and I knew that all I had to do was get the last few shots.. odds and ends of the cast, and the standing ovations and community accolades my mom was sure to receive at the end of the night. And so I set off early to the high school to get all the cameras prepped and in place to film what I needed for the night.

Shortly after I arrived and 90 minutes before show time.. the "call" came in. Saturday afternoon, one of the students from the high school.. one my Mom's speech team members, and very active member of her drama department, had been killed in a head-on car accident on the highway west of the school (news reports here). No one saw this one coming.. no one was prepared for this pain. Suddenly I found myself in an odd spot. My job was to document the events of the week.. regardless of what they might be, and so I quickly grabbed the camera and began to film what was happening, but filming these poor students who I had come to enjoy so much over the past week, as they walked through the door looking confused as to what was going on around them, then hearing the news that their friend was dead, then collapsing in their own grief and sobs.. part of me felt really creepy and uncomfortable and intrusive filming this.

Yet this was what the story had turned into... So I had to. Suddenly this whole, documentary filmmaker role took on a different meaning from what I had experienced in the past. Sure, you want a compelling, emotional story to tell.. but watching people have to suffer and grieve.. just isn't a fun experience. I never thought even for a second that someone would die in the process of my little film!!

Soon, my mom gathered the cast in the auditorium, everyone one of them sobbing almost uncontrollably. The decision had to be made.. go on and perform the final show, or cancel it and reschedule it for another night. Although she feared the backlash from public school parents, she pulled the cast together and offered a prayer, asking for comfort to them and to the family. All the students seemed to want to be a part of it and felt bonded together from the experience. Soon the decision was made to go on with the show, knowing that so many people had traveled a long way to witness that "final show" of my mom's career. They decided to dedicate the play to Kjersti. Her schedule had not allowed her to be in the musical, but she was still a part of the drama department and friends with all the cast, even having been there the previous night to watch the show, and the cast felt it appropriate to go on for her.

By show time, most had found a way to dig deep, to turn off the tears (most just barely) and go on stage and that nights performance turned out.. brilliantly. They all did fantastic in their roles. Even the poor sophomore lead playing the Captain, who had been scared to death to kiss a girl on stage, took the opportunity to "just go for it" to the amazement of the cast!

The school principal even stated afterward that he had never been prouder of a group of kids as this one, to go on with a stellar performance so quickly after getting such shocking news. But a moment I will never forget came at the very end of the show. I don't know who had the idea or how it circulated, but just after the final curtain call, the cast all lined up in the front of the stage, held hands and sang an impromptu acapella version of the song "My favorite things" from the musical.

"When the dogs bite, when the bees sting, when I'm feeling sad. I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad," came their unified voices. Everyone knew what that meant, what they had all been through and overcome, and there wasn't a dry eye in the audience.

And so Sunday morning as I packed up my gear and got on my plane, I knew I suddenly had a story much bigger than I had ever expected. I was completely exhausted and ready to sleep for days. But now it's time to put this all together, to tell the story of my Mom, the effect she has had and one that will adequately honor both Emily and Kjersti.. two students whose lives ended up cut much too short.

It was a fun, insightful, busy, exhausting, emotional week, but having the opportunity to tell this story, regardless of how it all turned out, I feel will be very rewarding. Now.. on to the editing booth...

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Update: Here's a more in-depth article, addressing both the death and the decision to go ahead with the musical performance, even after the cast had just been notified.