Fade in to the opening scene: A bus load of unsuspecting Chicago kids arrives at a mountain campground. The youngsters soon discover that their camp cabins are haunted by the ghost of a camper who died in his bunk years earlier. And this is one spook that does care for company.
Can a log-wielding ballerina save our campers? Will the ghost drink the magic potion and disappear? Or might a meddling scorpion named Angel get in the way?
Only the budding young filmmakers from Chicago’s Near Southwest Side can say for sure.
“Revenge of the Ghost,” an animated terror flick featuring a twirling ballerina and a disgruntled ghoul was dreamed up earlier this month by 13 children participating in an after-school program at the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, 2929 W. 19th St.
During a one-week crash course in computer animation, the kids, who attend three area public elementary schools and range in age from 8 to 12, created the short film.
Not bad for a week’s work, by anyone’s standards. Hollywood take note: These kids were on time and under budget.
But like most cinematic achievements, the effort didn’t come easy.
“I thought it was going to be not that hard,” said Ismael Vargas, 10. “Now I know how it is for people who make movies. I thought it took, like, a day.”
The animation workshop is a project of the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. Nicole Dreiske, artistic director of Facets Multimedia, which produces the festival and coordinates the animation project, said that in addition to the children learning how to create a film, it is her wish that they also become more media savvy.
“We hope that they become critical viewers,” she added.
In the workshop, the children develop the film’s plot, draw characters and create dialogue and sound effects. The film is later edited and assembled by workshop instructor Tom Law.
The program, called Cinema Tech, was developed by Law, a musician and computer specialist from South Carolina. With Law’s help, and a bit of technological know-how, the kids not only create the film, but they star in it as well.
At the beginning of the week, Law takes black-and-white photos of each child in different poses, which are then digitized and and saved into the computer system. The kids then create a character and, using a computer painting program developed by Law, they draw their characters — which include fish, trees and animals — around their faces.
“The ability to have their own face on the screen, that really gets their attention,” Law said. “The ability to create movement on a screen, it’s like magic for them.”
But on Day 3 of the workshop, these young movie magicians are experiencing a little frustration.
Law stands before the restless youngsters with a clipboard:
“Let me make sure I get this right . . . the ghost will appear at the girls’ cabin?”
Nodding of heads.
“When the girls get scared, I’m going to have them pull the covers over their heads. Does that sound like a good thing to do?”
General murmurs of agreement.
“Now the ballerina chases the scorpion with a log . . .” Law continues.
“Why is a ballerina at a campground? That’s stupid.” one defiant voice says.
“It’s absurd. I like it,” Law says, much to the satisfaction of 9-year-old Shirley Altuna, who has declared that she wants to play a camping ballerina.
Law goes on: “Should we have the ballerina hit the ghost over the head? We have to get that ghost unconscious.”
“But a ghost can’t be unconscious,” one girl points out. “The log would pass right through his body!”
“There you go getting logical,” Law sighs.
He moves on to a discussion of sound effects. “OK, we’re going to need the sound of feet running.”
The kids immediately begin to furiously pound their feet on the floor, proving they are up to the task.
“And we’ll need a `glug-glug’ sound when the ghost drinks the potion.”
A chorus of glug-glugs erupts.
Law pauses.
“What kind of noise can we think of for a scorpion?”
“It doesn’t make any sound,” someone says.
“I was afraid of that,” Law sighs.
One boy, forehead wrinkled in concern, raises his hand.
“What if we don’t finish by Friday?” he asks.
“Don’t even think like that!” Law cries.
For much of the sound effects and dialogue, Law coaxes utter silliness from the kids and records their outbursts on his keyboard. It’s the easiest part of his job.
“It’s really not a problem to get goofiness from a kid,” Law said earlier. “It’s trying to avoid goofiness that can be the problem.”
Law, who drove up for the workshop in a van filled with 15 Amiga computers, a camera, recording equipment and a keyboard, teaches animation during the three-week vacation from his full-time job as a computer systems manager.
“I’d be crazy to do this for the money,” he laughs. “Part of it is the adventure.”
When the kids finish their work, Law begins his. He will spend the next few months piecing the pictures and sounds together according to the kid’s plan.
Back in the workshop, the kids are fidgeting in their seats, eager to get down to the business of drawing.
Law sets them free and they dash to the computer monitors, grab their mice and begin.
Shirley puts the finishing touches on her ballerina’s pink tutu. She is certain the film will be a hit, she says, “because I am in it.”
Nine-year-old Angel Torres — better known in the film as the scorpion — creates the outline of a blue snorkle mask. “It’s difficult,” he says. “We have a lot to draw.”
A chart on the wall lists every child’s name next to a drawing duty. Ismael is responsible for swimmers’ legs and the ghost. He talks as he “paints” two sets of pink legs.
Ismael is confident that “Revenge of the Ghost” will appeal to other kids. “I’m a kid and I know that kids like a little bit of funny and a little bit of terror,” he says.
Though “Revenge of the Ghost” will probably never hit the big screen, a program debuting on the new HBO Family Channel could offer a chance for small-screen time.
“30×30: Kid Flicks,” which premieres Feb.1 at 3:30 p.m. on HBO Family, is a half-hour of films — animated and live action — made for and by children, said Dolores Morris, vice president of original programming for HBO Family.
The program has already opted to run a sort animated film called “Three Eggs and a Volcano,” created last year during the first Cinema Tech workshop led by Law and held at Chicago’s St. Gregory Episcopal School.
The film, a tale of dinosaurs and prehistoric birds that stomp and crunch their way through the downtown streets of Chicago, will air Feb. 4, and will be repeated Feb. 10 and 23.
Morris said she choose “Three Eggs” because, “The film really looks like a film kids would make. It is very accessible. I did not want to turn the average kid away from thinking `I can do that.’ “
Echoing Dreiske, Morris says that filmmaking teaches youngsters more than creative skills.
“I think kids, once they go through the process of making a film and . . . realize the tremendous effort that goes into it, they really look very closely at TV shows and movies,” Morris said.
Ten-year-old Brenda Garcia says she will change her viewing habits after her stint as a filmmaker.
“I will try to pay more attention to them now, because it’s something people do with their feelings,” she said.
