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Segment 1: MY ETHICAL ADVENTURE
Segment 2: WATCH THE MOVIE
“Going Home” offers eerie familiarity to individuals who became entangled in the Vietnam War controversy. Fall onto the vivid story of PFC Zunyer Castillo as he hooks his audience to the personal conflict resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions.
Segment 3: READ THE ARTICLE
The Miami Herald
April 20, 2003
Section: Neighbors EA
Edition: Final
Page: 4E
Memo:SOUTH MIAMI HIGH
STUDENT FILM IS BEST IN CONTEST
PERRY ATHANASON, Herald Writer
It's not a walk down the red carpet at the Academy Awards, but a team of filmmakers from South Miami High now knows exactly how it feels to be at the pinnacle of their craft.
Eight students, led by teacher Rudy Diaz, won the coveted Pinnacle Award from Scholastic Inc. for their short film Going Home, about the eerie experience of a Vietnam vet.
The national award means that out of 15,000 student films submitted, Going Home was the best. Now, the kids are gearing up for a trip to Washington, D.C., to pick up the honor and...
the $500 check that comes with it.
``The selection process on the national level is highly competitive,'' said Jerry Eisner, lead teacher for South Miami's magnet program. ``These students are the best of the best.''
``We are all really excited,'' said sophomore Kelly Saks, a member of the production team. ``We are going to use our prize money to make more films.''
Which means the kids must be prepared for another marathon endeavor. Going Home took about 18 months to create, then shoot and edit down to its 15-minute running time.
It helped that throughout the lengthy process, the kids and their teacher were close.
``The group that made the movie has been working and going to school together for several years now,'' said 15-year-old sophomore Peter Allen. ``The group chemistry we have is impeccable.''
Going Home originally started out as a movie about a man who faces war flashbacks while engaged in a paint-ball game.
After bouncing ideas off each other, the students ended up with a dramatic portrayal of an American soldier in Vietnam who returns to his family - with a twist ending.
``All of us created the idea together,'' said 16-year-old junior and film director Robert Barrett. ``Just sitting down and talking, one idea would lead to another.''
Taking the idea from their heads to the screen took some doing.
`Preproduction never stopped,'' said Robert. ``We were constantly changing things at the last minute to give the film a fluid connection. The entire project was an incredible learning experience.''
The filmmakers got help from several departments in the school, including the JROTC and the drama magnet program. They did hours of research on Vietnam, including interviewing some vets, and then got down to the task of filming their story.
``The shootings and the work took effort from everyone,'' said 16-year-old sophomore Vanessa Hernandez. ``We strove for accuracy and hoped to tell at least one inside story of war.''
``The shootings were tough and the post-production was long,'' said sophomore Kristine Leal. ``In the end it was worth it.''
A lot of the post-production burden, especially for the battle scenes, fell on the special effects editor, senior William Bischoff.
``I had to teach myself to use certain computer programs and figure out how to create explosions,'' he said.
The students worked with programs such as After Effects and Adobe Premiere to enhance their imagery, including the production of 28 audio tracks. The movie, shot with a Canon GL-1, was filmed in and around Miami-Dade with locations including the Gold Coast Railway Museum.
But it was not without incident. Diaz almost got arrested by South Miami police when he was pulled over and the officers found a cache of prop weapons in his car. It helped when one of the officers recognized him as a teacher at South Miami.
For his part, Diaz was content to let the students explore the topic, and the process. An award-winning professional cameraman and editor, Diaz has been running the broadcast program at South Miami for 11 years - and has racked up more than a few awards with his kids.
The Pinnacle, though, was the first national title for the group.
When he talks about Going Home, Diaz is like a proud papa.
``This is an extremely creative, motivated, and dedicated group of young adults,'' Diaz says of his production team.
``Rudy is an excellent mentor for these students,'' Eisner said. ``This group maintained their motivation for a year and half building the film layer by layer and I think the end product speaks for itself.''
For the kids, getting to the end product is what it's about - no matter what it takes.
``Making movies is hard as hell - and I love to do it,'' said 16-year-old sophomore Nick Corirossi, producer of Going Home.
Illustration:photo: Kelly Saks and Robert Barrett and Vanessa Hernandez and Kristine Leal and William Bischoff and Nick Corirossi and Rudy Diaz and Peter Allen and Mike Nunes (A), Rudy Diaz (A)
PHOTOS BY C.W. GRIFFIN/HERALD STAFF PROUD: Teacher Rudy Diaz, up front near TV, and his filmmaking team from South Miami High School watch a scene from `Coming Home,' the film they produced that won the national Pinnacle Award.
TEAM: Holding cameras, from left, are Kelly Saks, Robert Barrett, Vanessa Hernandez. Also pictured: Kristine Leal, William Bischoff, Nick Corirossi, teacher Rudy Diaz, Peter Allen and Mike Nunes.
Copyright (c) 2003 The Miami Herald
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Segment 2: Going Home
“Going Home” offers eerie familiarity to individuals who became entangled in the Vietnam War controversy. Fall onto the vivid story of PFC Zunyer Castillo as he hooks his audience to the personal conflict resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions.
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Segment 1: Media Law and Ethics--Being Accountable
Everyone comes to a point in their life were they are placed into a situation where they are asked to go against their moral accountability. When I was in high school I went to South Miami School of the Arts. I was an avid painter and film maker. My junior year I created a dramatic student film about the Vietnam War.
After a couple months many people realized the extensive potential to the film. The crew grew from me alone, to 31 people. Six months later the film was nearly complete until my film teacher and fellow students felt adding the “F” word into the movie would make the movie more realistic. The answer to me was obvious: Not a chance.
Heavy tension grew between me and all of the other students. They relentlessly told me I was being stubborn and arrogant. However I refused to go against my moral principles. Near the end of the school year we sent off the film to the Miami Student Film Festival to compete against 120 student films. We also sent it to the Scholastics National Film Festival to compete against over 15,000 student films.
Despite not including what in my opinion was extreme vulgarity, the movie got 8 out of the 9 awards at the Miami festival. The only award the Vietnam War movie did not get was best comedy. At the Scholastics National Film Festival the movie received the "Pinnacle" award for first place in the nation. The school board flew me and a couple crew members to the Kennedy Center in D.C. to receive the award in front of over four thousand people.
The lights hit the stage—took a few steps in front of the world—unable to find my family among the audience abyss. Then an epiphany—I realized this might never happen again so I pulled out my photo camera and took a picture of the audience and then a picture of myself. Then concluded by saying I was open for job offers. My proudest moment was knowing I firmly held to my principles and still came off conqueror. My 2nd proudest moment was getting over four thousand people to laugh at the same time.
From that point on, I made up my mind. It is important to develop your own moral principles and to hold to them. Although this could appear to hurt one’s career, there is a wonderful confidence which accompanies a principled employee. Do not be afraid of worldly pressures and do not let the filth of their values infect you. There is much good all of us can do in increasing Christ like ethics.
An employee with principles, is an employee with consistency. Often employers view this as a valuable resource for an evolving business. Wait it out, you’ll see!
Copyright (c) 2003 The Miami Herald
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