Best of the Week 2020-2021: Teaching to the Future

TWO STUDENT FILMS NOMINATED FOR 2021 STUDENT PRODUCTION EMMYS

Congratulations to our student filmmakers who worked on "Gasoline," a short sports documentary about award-winning strength and conditioning coach, Auggie Promersberger, and "Follow Through," a short film made by senior students in the IB HL film class, for their two Student Production Emmy nominations. These two Emmy nominations are part of the 52nd Annual Lower Great Lakes Chapter Emmy Awards. "My inspiration for 'Gasoline' came from my experience in the weight room with Coach Auggie, witnessing the ways he would make us work harder and hearing the stories he'd share with us. We, as a group, wanted to capture his story and document how he motivates his student-athletes in and outside the weight room," says Brendan McIlwee '21, producer of "Gasoline." "This film was the first time I was in charge of a project like this. I felt a lot of pressure to get it right, but my fellow classmates really helped me capture everything I wanted to. Being Emmy-nominated shows just how hard we worked to create the best piece of film we could produce, especially amidst pandemic restrictions." Brendan worked alongside Cody Wagner '23 (Director), Ryan Steckle '22 (Director), Joseph Hirzel '21 (Director), Tim Sheehan '21 (Cinematographer), Brevyn Coleman '23 (Cinematographer), Jayson Morris '22 (Cinematographer), Evan Wrightsman '21 (Editor), Zachary Bell '23 (Editor), Gavin Crocker '23 (Sound), Jack Nagel '21 (Sound), and Jacob Winter '22 (Sound) on "Gasonline."

Seth Wanner '21 (Writer, Director), Camden Mitchell '21 (Director), Marty Dubecky '21 (Producer), Sebastian Vanegas '21 (Cinematographer), and Johannes Afful '21 (Gaffer) collaborated on "Follow Through," a film that has been years in the making. "This film draws big inspiration from TV shows like 'I Am Not Okay With This' and 'Twin Peaks' and is the first time I've worked on a film outside of school. Mapping out the shooting process was a formative experience for me as a filmmaker," says Seth. "We've been working on this film since our sophomore year and it's felt like a really professional shoot. Writing and directing this short film was a really cool experience and having the freedom as the art director to choose wardrobe, color palates, set design and more allowed me to visually represent my script as intended."