From left: Lincoln Academy students Eli Melanson, Annaliese Garnett, and Elias Bassett plan the camera setup for a scene during a filming session at the school on April 9. The three students brought the idea to LAs theater director, Griff Braley, in 2022 and are now leading the project. (Dylan Burmeister photo)
While the filmmaking industry often inspires thoughts of Hollywood glamour and fame in sunny southern California, Lincoln Academy students interested in cinematography have had the opportunity to produce a film of their own in Newcastle.
Spearheaded by LA’s theater director Griff Braley and students Elias Bassett, Eli Melanson, and Annaliese Garnett, the cast and crew of the Big Film Project have spent the past year writing, revising, and planning for the film sessions currently taking place.
Bassett, Melanson, and Garnett came up with the idea for the project in 2022 and developed the story last school year. Bassett, who is the assistant director of the project, wrote the film’s 80-page script last summer. The first draft was “weak in that it felt like a parody,” he said.
Over the first two trimesters of this school year, Bassett worked with Braley doing revisions, which focused on deepening the characters and finding their motivations, he said.
While writing the script, titled “Getting Along,” Bassett wanted to cover a topic that he could speak to from his own experiences, which encouraged the idea of the high school “dramedy” – a mix of drama and comedy – that the plot became.
“When we were trying to figure out how we could do it practically, we had the resources of a big high school so we tried to incorporate that,” he said.
The project involves a cast of LA students and other adults in the community. In addition to Melanson and Garnett, who work with the cameras, and Bassett, senior Mitchell Straus is in charge of sound. Junior Sophia Scott is writing a score for the film, and other students stop in during film sessions to help with tech or serve as extras.
David Martinez, of Maine Media, has been involved with the project since November 2023.
“His main role is to teach us as a professional who has worked on real–life film sets and is very knowledgeable,” said Melanson.
“It’s really helpful being able to learn from his expertise,” Bassett said.
Initially, the crew spread information about the Big Film Project through LA’s weekly community meeting and emails to students. After they organized a space in the Poe Theater with light and cameras to mimic film shoots, interested students read excerpts of the script during auditions in February.
“We were watching for how they looked on camera, if they could look through the camera at the audience, and obviously their acting,” Melanson said. “One of the more difficult parts is that we have a great theater program, and stage acting requires more projection, whereas on camera it’s more subtle and demands a different kind of acting. Unlike in a play, where you work for months building the arc toward a final performance, this performance starts the first day of filming, and so we looked for someone who already encompasses some of that character they were auditioning for.”
LA junior Anna Lupien, who was in both the 2023 and 2024 champion one act plays, agreed that film acting requires subtler acting and said that she chose to audition because she wanted to be a part of “a different kind” of production.
“It’s a totally different experience from acting onstage, and it’s compelling because this is everyone’s first time working in this medium,” she said.
Melanson and Bassett have long been avid enjoyers of cinema, Melanson said.
“Watching ‘Parasite’ in 2019 was such a masterpiece that it made me realize what a great form of art filmmaking is, and I wanted to be a part of that,” he said.
“When I was growing up, my interests did not lie in the contemporary films of the time, but my grandfather introduced me to older films, which I really enjoyed,” said Bassett. “I’ve always loved storytelling, and how a film could tell a story with both words and visual images. The picture is a universal language. It’s something everyone can understand, and that’s why we have such a connection to other countries’ films – we get their intent without having to understand the language.”
So far, film sessions have gone well, according to Bassett. The team has been working on refining the process, learning about set protocol, and how to go about shooting a scene under time constraints. Each session requires time to set up equipment, rehearse lines and blocking, do costumes and hair, and try different camera angles and lighting.
Usually, each scene is shot in multiple takes, with slight alterations to lines, movement, or lighting made to improve the scene. The set is full of humor, constant motion, and ultimately, a collaboration to produce a polished scene.
Melanson spoke to the heavy time commitment of the project.
“Between this, tennis, and AP (classes), it’s not a light load,” he said. “Still, this is an opportunity that basically nobody else gets, so to be able to do this while we’re still in high school is really special.”
“Getting Along” is set to premiere at Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta in June.
