The gym at the For Oak Cliff community center is dimly lit as a dozen or so students sit on the bleachers and absorb a lecture by workshop mentors Eric Jewel and Ashton Campbell.
The workshop was organized into three groups, each with the assignment to make a short film. During the workshop, they watched "Continuity," produced by students Sir Dallas Alexander and Zachary Azerad.
Jewel points out that during the first part of the film, the students make a common mistake in filmmaking.
“So let’s talk about what’s called breaking the 180,” Jewel says to the students.
Jewel directs his students to sit across from each other as he demonstrates an essential rule in filmmaking.
Four students sit in four chairs, each across from each other. Jewel explains that characters in a scene should always be filmed with the same left-to-right perspective.
“As some people, they realize movie making is hard to do and they may not ever do it again but they certainly got some life skills out of it if that happens,” Jewel told KERA.
Now in its second year, the workshop teaches high school students the basics of filmmaking. Last year, students only sat in on lectures by the mentors about filmmaking. This year — for the first time — the workshop aimed to get students to actually make their own short films.
“The idea was to get them to do something and finish it and really just, you know, have responsibility to do it, have the accountability to do it," said Ashton Campbell, the co-director for the Oak Cliff Film Festival and a workshop mentor, "and then actually have the follow through to finish it and get it across the finish line."
He said the goal of the workshop is to get underprivileged students from Oak Cliff and surrounding neighborhoods to work together on making a short film.
“There's a stigma that they think they can't do it. ‘I don't come from the right neighborhood. I don't look a certain way. I don't have enough money. I don't this, I don't that,’” Campbell said. “Well, what if you could?”
The festival itself is a self-described “smorgasbord” of independent films, ranging from sci-fi romance to comedy and horror, many of which are making their Texas premiere at the festival. It also features a variety of concerts and even a skateboarding event.
But, like Jewel said, making a film is hard, whether you’re in high school or doing it for a living. Campbell said just one group making a film is a success. And this year, least one group did.
Alexander and Azerad, the students who wrote "Continuity," said their film is a spoof on another rule in filmmaking — avoiding continuity errors.
Alexander, who lives in the Singing Hills neighborhood of Southern Dallas, said the concept of the film is simple.
“Students are waiting for their teacher who's running late for tutoring," Alexander said. "In the meantime, they're trying to make up these silly scenarios as to why he's running late. As the as the film goes on, the ideas get a bit more, you know, ludicrous.”
Throughout the scene, objects are out of place in each shot that precedes it. A random person who wasn't there before walks behind the students. A Baby Yoda, or Grogu, doll from "Star Wars" is in a different place in each shot.
“I wanted to tell a comedic story," Azerad said. "So I decided to take this comedic story and gear it towards filmmakers with, like, adding in these outrageous continuity errors where, like, there would be Grogu in one shot or a computer in one shot and then cut to the next shot and it's that and the computer's no longer there.”
Campbell described Azerad and Alexander's film as "meta."
"It starts by breaking the fourth wall, which is great," Campbell said. "It was almost like a satire on continuity errors really, and kind of like the filmmaking world, and how continuity error can kind of be overlooked."
The film also put a twist on the whole reason for the workshop in the first place — learning from your mistakes.
Alexander said before the workshop, he was unsure if he wanted to do film. But with the support he got from mentors, he’s learned a lot.
“This entire workshop has definitely opened me up to asking for help," Alexander said. "Whether it has to do with filmmaking or not, you know, I'm just more susceptible to you know well, ‘Hey, let me get some criticism, I'm having trouble with this, let me go ask around.’”
Alexander said now he wants to keep making films, even if he’s got more lessons to learn.
The Oak Cliff Film Festival kicks off Thursday. The film "Continuity" will make its festival premiere Friday at 7 p.m. at the Bishop Arts Theatre.
