Young movie makers focus on the environment

Tampa, Florida - The USF campus on Wednesday became a backdrop for movie making with shouts of "action" and "cut."

Armed with video cameras and dressed in costumes, students from Learning Gate Community School are going Hollywood. Learning Gate is a Hillsborough charter school with an environmental emphasis, so these kids with cameras focused on "save the earth" movie messages.

"The villains like to ruin our environment and pollute and stuff and the super heroes make them good at the end," says 11-year-old Shannon Davis, who played the part of super hero Tree Woman.

And while this project is obviously fun (based on all the laughter going on), along the way the 6^th graders learned about writing, planning and working in a group. "I've learned that polluting is bad and that shooting a movie isn't as easy as it seems," says Allie Grace.

USF education majors helped manage all this mini-movie mayhem and they learned some stuff too. "You have to know in your mind what you want to do, how to keep everybody entertained, everybody working at the same time," says Holly Sellers who wants to teach 1^st grade.

After once-a-week session for a month, this was the last day of shooting and the groups now have to edit their final product. And what's a movie-making experience without a premiere party? The kids will have a couple of them; one at their school and one at USF on a big silver screen.

And of his movie, William Mather Jr. says with confidence, "I'm sure people will like it."