May 8, 2008
ARTS:
Ridgefield High students film a mystery
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A murder mystery written, directed, acted, scored and filmed by Ridgefield High School students will have its screen premier next week.
‘Fuge,’ a collaboration of two RHS juniors that has involved up to 50 students, will be shown on Friday, May 16, at 7 p.m. in Ridgefield High School’s auditorium. Admission is $5 and will benefit the RHS arts club known as “The Company.”
“It is about a loner kid, a teenager, who aspires to be like a private investigator,” said Grant Rosenmeyer, who co-wrote the film with fellow RHS junior Louis Gordon.
The aspiring investigator becomes a high school version of a private detective who works for divorce lawyers and suspicious spouses.
“He basically follows boys’ girlfriends around when the boyfriends are paranoid,” Grant said. “The problem is, he becomes emotionally attached to this one girls he’s following.”
So, things gets complicated.
“Basically, it’s a question of morality and how somebody who really lacks morals tries to find some sort of redemption for what he’s done,” Grant said. “However, at the same time it’s almost this obsession of his, so one can’t help but question his motives.”
Grant Rosenmeyer has a professional acting resume that includes Hollywood movies — The Royal Tenenbaums is probably the best known — television shows including Oliver Beene and Monk, and Broadway shows including Les Miserables and Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
As for writing, directing and producing, Grant did a film project, Head of the Class, last year. Louis Gordon, his full collaborator on Fuge, was the cinematographer on that project.
“On the last one I was doing pretty much everything myself; Louis worked with me as director of cinematography,” Grant said. “On this one, it was nice to have a collaborator.”
Once things got going, more and more kids from the high school got involved.
“It started very small. It took a long time to film. It ended up taking about six months to shoot. As we kept going, people got really really excited about it. We started with about 10 kids on board, finished with about 50, freshmen to seniors,” Grant said.
“It was really nice to have everybody come together for it.”
The film’s lead roles are: Grant as the amateur sleuth; Sierra Hubsher, an RHS senior headed to NYU to study theater arts next year, as the leading lady; and Ben Bass, an RHS junior and aspiring comedian, as Sierra’s paranoid boyfriend.
RHS senior Bryan Belok, who plays piano and guitar, created an original score for the movie.
“I told him about it. I showed him the movie,” Grant said. “And we just sat down the other day and he’d knocked out a score and it was really, really good.”
The film features a number of venues in town, including Dmitri’s Diner, Cafe Svago, The Barn.
“Ridgefield Supply let us use their storage house,” Grant said.
Proceeds go to “The Company,” an RHS club headed by Drama Teacher Sherry Cox that involves music, art, dance, theater and film students.
“The Company began as an attempt to bring students who are interested in the visual and performing arts together to collaborate on projects,” Ms. Cox said.
“There are so many creative and talented students at RHS, yet many of them never meet and discover that they have a lot in common.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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