A Touch of Hollywood Magic in Florissant

students were honored with by the University of Missouri at St. Louis with the prized UMSIE award in May for their work on their video Fighting.

The video, which depicts the fallout of one student’s decision to fight after bumping into another student, won Best High School Video and Most Popular Video as well at the 2011 Digital Media Festival (DMF).

Graduates Kyle Thies, Martez Henderson and Michael Roberson made the video in response to an increase in violence in the school’s hallways.

“We felt like we needed to make a video to try and stop the inappropriate behavior of our fellow students,” said Thies, who directed, co-wrote and starred in the video.

The film quickly became a favorite in morning classrooms, which inspired the students to enter the film into the DMF.

“I didn’t think it would be so popular, especially not enough to win an UMSIE,” Roberson, co-writer of the video, said. “We just wanted to bring down the number of fights at school.”

Teachers and student alike appreciated the way the students communicated the importance of non-violence in a way that didn’t appear overbearing or a second thought.

“I was proud of it,” Henderson said. “We wanted to promote nonviolence. We used the video to communicate with our fellow student instead of just picking up a microphone and yelling at them in the hub (school’s central area).”

Fighting wasn’t the only video to garner accolades.

They followed it up with Cheating. Like fighting, the video was a result of actions the filmmakers witnessed in school.

“We would see a handful of unrecognized cheating all the time, and no one ever got caught,” Thies said. Like Fighting, he was involved with directing and writing, this time sharing duties with graduate Chase Dzierwa.

The film won two awards at the Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) Film Festival, for Best Action and Best High School Film. Roberson took home an award for the film.

“We wanted to show how stupid it was to cheat,” Dzierwa said. “Why would you do that? You need to learn the material, or else it’s useless to you. It’s just ridiculous!”

Even more than the awards, all the students were proud of the work they put in and what it meant for the future of McCluer as much as their own.

“This has been a highlight for sure. This is where I want to go in life. Knowing my work is being recognized and liked is a great feeling. I’m really happy I spent my senior year on this,” Thies said.

Their media teacher, Jennifer Schwarz, couldn’t be happier with what her students have done.

“The success they’ve found has meant a lot,” Schwarz said. “Most of them I’ve had a few times in class. It’s a teacher’s dream seeing them come so far on something they truly like to do. It’s been fantastic, and I love working with these kids.”