Thursday, April 20, 2017

High School--tenth cut/ École Secondaire -- une vidéo


From my collection of authorial movies. 
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/wdHFwJD6NIU

This short story appeared many years ago in the magazine of my first alma mater, Trent University. The issue itself is so old that it has yellowed almost to the point of being completely brittle. However, since I don't have the original manuscript, I was happy to find my issue of the magazine, and have been thinking about redoing it for some time. 

The story itself is typical Bildungsroman Short: Tom Halvorsen, a creative guy with less-than- stellar study habits, doodles in English class. This catches the interest of a class friend, Danny Ducharme, who's fascinated by the pictures. But Danny also notices a haiku Tom has written, and insists on an explanation. The two start whispering back and forth and earn a cold stare from the teacher.

Tom leaves class and runs into Claudia Horowitz, who secretively informs him that her kind-but-plain friend Melinda has a crush on him. Tom (not very handsome himself), becomes nervous rather than flattered, makes an excuse to take off. Then he goes to the cafeteria, which, during off hours functions as a kind of study hall, and encounters Anne Singer, the girl he already adores....

This movie is part of a series of authorial movies that I've been making for a few years. I now have enough to comprise a complete collection of short stories (that are also movies), collection of poems (same), and a novel that's been likewise adapted. This combining of literary narratives with new media has been done before by writer/director /producer teams. As a solo project, it's something new.

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