When we were approached by the movie company about having them film at Parker, there were three considerations: What educational opportunities would there be for kids? How much money could we make to put into our general fund? and, What was the movie going to be about?
The producer of the movie came to a Board meeting and told us the movie was like Ferris Beuller's Day Off. In fact, I specifically asked her if it wasn't more like Fast Times at Ridgemont High given the drug content and PG-13 rating. She said, "No, it is like Ferris Beuller's Day Off."
Our district made sure that no students were on the set during school hours when there was questionable content involved. Students who elected to be extras in the movie did so on their own. There were students from across the area involved in the movie. For Howell students at both the high school and middle school levels, there were opportunities to learn what movie making was about behind the scenes. They heard from casting directors, producers and others on the crew. It was an amazing opportunity for Howell kids.
According to the production company, they spent over $3 million dollars in our community. They brought a sense of excitement to the community and fostered collaboration between the City, Chamber and HPS. The movie created jobs in a time when they were desperately needed and pumped money into small businesses throughout the area. It was a good opportunity for Howell.
With that said, for those of you who have seen the trailer to High School, you were probably a little shocked. I turned off the volume on the trailer because my kids were sitting nearby.
What bothers me the most about this whole thing is not that they made the movie at Parker. It is actually that I am left wondering if our culture has slipped so far away from its roots that this movie really is considered the "Ferris Beuller" of 2009.
What does this say about our culture? What does this say about our tolerance for trashy content? We were told there was an overarching message in the movie that drugs are bad. I guess if you can see past the gyrating hips of the pot smoking girl in a negligee, maybe there could be.
As someone who voted to let this movie be made at Parker, I am in no way endorsing the content. For those of you who are deeply offended by the content of this movie, I am sorry. It is offensive. It is not Ferris Beuller's Day Off.
What do you think about the cultural issues? How far is too far? Is there a way for Americans to come together under the banner of common sense and start to pull the line in the sand back from the abyss? I look forward to hearing from you.
6 comments:
You're joking, right? Here's the thing: don't go to the movie. The primary goal of movies is to entertain. They can also move us, educate us and inspire us, but they also make us laugh and scare us. This is pretty simple, don't go to the movie or let your kids go if a PG rating bothers you. By the way, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" is a classic, and I have it in my DVD collection. "Ferris Buller" is OK to watch once, but it does not hold a candle to Fast Times. Your position on the two films is a little confusing because they basically have the same theme. Just condemning Fast Times because there is a kid in the film who is a stoner makes no sense. Every high school had a kid like that in the era I grew up in.
Here's a link that's still working for the trailer http://www.parallelmediafilms.com/
It does look pretty sick, not in the way sick means today. Sad, how many great stories are there in schools that overlooked in order to make movies like these?
Lighten up. However, you are partially right. There are many great stories in schools; like “The Freedom Writers.” Oh wait, Ms. Day and her partner tried to ban that story.
What was the case for that? BTW: I remember enjoying American Pie when it came out, but blown away by how over the top it was, but now if I watch it, it seems quite tame.
The worst is over. That was a poorly edited teaser trailer and I wonder about the credibility of Paralell Media and the director in not practicing better control of the video clips. One of the biggest rules in filmmaking is never show anything until its ready to be shown. They blew it. I gotta believe something was mislabeled on the computer file.
The film could be a cult classic in the end or maybe not. I would not worry about the content of the movie. No one, I mean no one is going to asscociate this movie (which I bet will get retitled) with Howell schools or the Howell community in a negative way. The only stink I have is the published basic rental rate for the school was stated as 15k per month. The rate should have been 30k per month. So the total revenue should have been closer to 160k. The production company would have paid it. Where else would they have gone?
Also the local hiring was meek because the same production company went from one film project to the "High School" project. So all of your lower level jobs that could have been given to local peeps was given to people who were already with the Farmington HIlls production company. So if the film came from LA and the production company was setup from scratch you would have had several Production Asst. jobs given to locals.
I think its awesome the film was done here and I hope more of these projects come Howell's way. Livingston County should get many more films because of its location and various "looks" that can be found here. The only downer is we don't have a a top flight hotel for actors and director types and people who blog.
This movie is set in California, no one outside of this area will even care or know that it was shot at Parker.
Plus, it had a highly acclaimed Academy and Emmy award winning actors in it so we should wait until the movie actually comes out to make a full critique (if it ever does?)
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