Comedy Film Fest plays one night at the Granada Theatre
A trio of local high school seniors who make films will premiere
the latest in a trio of action comedies at the Granada Theatre May
7, at 6 p.m.
Jimmy Goudge, a senior at Anzar High School, and his friends
Kevin Thome and Jake Hunter, seniors at San Benito High School,
have been making films together since they were in eighth grade at
Sacred Heart School.
”
We did a graduation film,
”
Goudge said.
”
We did interviews of teachers and got footage of different sites
on campus. We’ve been filming ever since.
”
Comedy Film Fest plays one night at the Granada Theatre
A trio of local high school seniors who make films will premiere the latest in a trio of action comedies at the Granada Theatre May 7, at 6 p.m.
Jimmy Goudge, a senior at Anzar High School, and his friends Kevin Thome and Jake Hunter, seniors at San Benito High School, have been making films together since they were in eighth grade at Sacred Heart School.
“We did a graduation film,” Goudge said. “We did interviews of teachers and got footage of different sites on campus. We’ve been filming ever since.”
The latest film is “Space Movie,” for which they created custom props such as a spaceship that they filmed in front of a green screen for an intergalactic comedy.
“It is our most recent project and our most intense,” Goudge said. “We’ve been working on it for a year.”
He said the three of them have tried to venture out into different genres, but “most of the time it turns out to be action comedies, no matter how we start.”
Jake Hunter said the team usually has a new movie idea in mind just as they complete a project.
“Actually, Jimmy proposed the idea a couple weeks ago about having a super hero movie, but that is still in its infant stages,” Hunter said.
While the directors use a Sony Handycam to film their movies, which Goudge described as pretty low-tech, they have been using Adobe After Effects to put in some of the lasers and other special effects. The hardest part is finding the time to get together.
“The most challenging part is getting all of our schedules to work on the same time frame so we can all be in the same place at the same time,” Hunter said.
The directors showed another of their films last year, “Blood, Sweat and Tears,” at the Blak Sage Gallery. When they told Bernadine Belaski-McGee, who works at the gallery, about their new project, she suggested that they should try to premiere it at the Granada.
They talked with Amelia Souza-Hatcher, of San Benito Stage Company, which leases the theater, and they came to an agreement that the boys could use the space with the proceeds going to the San Benito Stage Company.
Goudge described “Blood, Sweat and Tears” as an action comedy and said the other film that will be showing, “Tiny Moustache,” is a World War II comedy. The films run about 20 minutes each, so moviegoers can expect just more than an hour of laughs.
“A lot of people say our films are very ‘Monty Python-esque,'” Goudge said. “And that’s good because a lot of people like them.”
The young directors get support from their families, who often provide food for the crew and allow the boys to transform their living rooms into movie sets.
“By far the coolest part is watching it,” Hunter said. “But apart from that, I think one of the things I like most is building the sets and the props for it because it’s where you can really make the movie come to life using all the different props, and sets, and what not.”
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Goudge said, of the film festival. “At our showing we will be bringing in our movie costumes and props we built and hanging them up so people can look at them and touch them and stuff like that. It will be a fun show for $5.”
Comedy film fest
San Benito Stage Co. presents a Comedy Film Festival, May 7, at 6 p.m., at the Granada Theater, 336 Fifth St., in Hollister. Tickets are $5 and proceeds will benefit the San Benito Stage Company. The evening will feature three films by student directors, including works by Kevin Thome, Jake Hunter and Jimmy Goudge. Their films are titled “Tiny Moustache,” “Blood, Sweat and Explosions” and “The Space Movie.” Tickets are on sale at Postal Graphics or by calling Goudge at 638-0398. Tickets will also be sold at the door.
