Filmmakers Seek Distribution for Thriller Featuring Teaneck High School

may be a scary place for students late for class or unprepared for final exams, but in the film “The Ideal,” the building itself serves as a haunting backdrop for two students and a teacher working at the school during summer break.

Former THS film teacher Wes Ciesla started on his first feature-length movie two years ago with the help of student Rivka Rappoport, who at the time was a sophomore. Ciesla taught at THS from 2001 to 2010 but lost his job when the high school’s film program was eliminated due to budget cuts.

“I had a general idea for the story, and I was working with two English teachers (Robert Sherbine and Maurice Rosales) at the high school,” Ciesla said. “I was constructing the skeleton of the story, writing one sentence per scene, and seeing how the story would progress. Very early on we felt like there was something missing, like we needed somebody with a totally different outlook on it.”

Lucky for Ciesla, Rappoport had parents who were interested in getting their daughter more involved in writing.

“My parents are very meddlesome,” joked Rappoport. “During back-to-school night, they happened to mention to Mr. Ciesla that I wanted to be a screenwriter. That got me in the door.”

Ciesla invited Rappoport to meetings about the film, and said he was instantly impressed with the maturity shown by the 16-year-old. He said Rappoport not only had wonderful ideas to contribute but also had a great sense of structure over the entire storyline, spotting changes that needed to be made down the road when earlier scenes got tweaked.

“This film required a lot from her and a lot of rewrites,” Ciesla said. “She would send me a script, and I would make red and blue remarks. She would address those remarks and that would go on for about half a year. And she was also on the film set because I tend to change things when I’m filming.”

Ciesla said the film was shot over 23 days during the summer of 2010. He said about 95 percent of the movie takes place inside the high school. There are some exterior shots of downtown Teaneck, as well as a home in Teaneck and a home in Fair Lawn that represent the homes of the two actors portraying students in the film.

The film centers around two students named Julia and Alexander who hold summer jobs helping a popular history teacher, Mr. Zenidro, at the high school. Strange forces within the empty school begin to have an effect on the teacher, and the two students are left wondering how to deal with their peculiar situation.

Saying that there weren’t really any challenges with filming in the school, Ciesla said assistance from the janitors and support from school administrators helped things to run smoothly.  

“The Ideal” will have its first screening at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 11 at Anthology Film Archives in New York City. The invitation-only event will include personal guests of those involved with the film, as well as additional audience members who will give their opinion of the film after it screens.

Ciesla said there are no plans to screen the film in Teaneck at this time because the goal right now is to look for distribution. Certain press outlets will be invited to the screening, as well as the agents of some of the actors. A panel discussion will follow.

“I’ve spent two years with this film, so it’s hard to be objective,” Ciesla said. “I hope to get a sense from the audience of what they like and don’t like.”

Any critiques won’t necessarily mean that changes will be made to the film because that would involve added expenses.

“I’m pretty confident in the film,” Ciesla said. “It would have to be a very strong criticism that I would have to hear over and over again in order to make changes.”

Rappoport is now a freshman at Columbia University, majoring in creative writing and film. She said the process of making a movie is extremely difficult, so she’s glad she had the opportunity to work with Ciesla while in high school.

For THS students interested in filmmaking, Ciesla said it’s important for them to practice making short films. Rappoport added that students should take a creative writing course or at least the Literature and Cinema class, which she said involves watching films and then looking at them from a critical angle.

“I think it would be amazing if one day they would bring back the film program, but at the same time, THS is not without other outlets,” Rappoport said.

Now that “The Ideal” is completed, Ciesla and Rappoport have begun working together on another project, the details for which they’d like to keep secret for now.

“I owe him a draft right now,” Rappoport said in reference to her current project with Ciesla. “And no, the backdrop won’t be at the high school. There’s only so many of those you can write.”

To follow the progress of “The Ideal,” visit the movie’s official website or its Facebook page.