Film club, a new club this year, has been working hard to write, plan, shoot, and edit their very own —no joke, 67 page— movie “Cherry Soda and Cyanide”. Not only is Film club a pillar of creativity at LSHS, it’s also a great example of student leadership. Juniors: Mary Reynolds, Sophie O’Brien, and Aiden Chmelik practically run everything. In fact, Mary told us that she “doesn’t want to make Ms. McBride (the club advisor) do anything.” Setting up the club was hard work. Mary Reynolds told us “I was going to say it was easy, but it highkey wasn’t”. We also asked some members of the club why they joined. Most said that they were looking for something fun to do and some said they were looking for clubs that had bigger projects.
The Club
Curious about the creation of this club, we interviewed Mary and Sophie. The obvious question is why did you start this club and what do you get out of it? Mary told us she sees it as a creative outlet and Sophie told us she sees it as a way to gain experience for a potential career as a director.
A hard part of starting a club at LSHS is finding a teacher to be an Advisor. Sophie and Mary told us they had talked to Mr. Seis, Mr. Sommers, and Ms King before Ms. McBride agreed to be their advisor. Sophie told us that it was even harder to find people who wanted to join, despite their now large membership of around 20 people.
Because a student-led club is rare, we were curious about their process. How are they going to make a movie? Mary told us that the beginning of the club started off with her and the other club leaders teaching lessons on how to write plot and characters. She told us that the 3 leaders used to go out for a coffee and decide what they wanted to do for the next couple weeks. Usually Mary would make the slideshows, which she saw as good practice, because she is “gonna go into teaching.” After giving lessons to the club, they held a vote on what genre the movie would be, eventually settling on murder mystery, and started to brainstorm. Then, after a —very talkative as we observed— writing process that Mary says “takes forever”, they finally edited the final copy. In fact they edited the entirety of the, again 67 page, script 3 times to ensure it was uniform. Once done they filmed both in school and outside of school, before beginning the editing process.
The Film
Film club’s upcoming film, Cherry Soda and Cyanide, is a 1980s Murder Mystery. The story follows 5 teens trying to investigate the murder of their friend. The early edit of the first 8 minutes we were allowed to see was not only well shot and well acted, but it was also funny. Inbetween laughs Sophie told us that she “forgot to change the Disney Channel transitions.” Mary beforehand said that, while their film was originally meant to be a comedy, they had pivoted away while still retaining the use of classic trope-y horror movie characters. Sophie told us that as a “movie buff” she was heavily influenced by Scream and Breakfast Club for this movie, which is clearly visible in the unique style of comedy Cherry Soda and Cyanide —or at least the first 8 minutes— has.
As for a release, the club’s leaders are currently unsure; the editing process is tedious and slow. Mary said we can look forward to a Youtube release, and hopes of a screening in the auditorium were being talked about amongst both club members and leadership. To check for updates, you can follow LSHS film club on Instagram @lshs.film.making
The club leaders also wanted to encourage more people to join. The few times we went in Mary had baked cookies, and everyone seemed to be having a good time chatting as they worked. Mary encouraged those to join that want to be in a group of social, creative, and goofy people. “Youll make friends, I think. It’s really fun, you’ll learn a lot.”
