SCHENECTADY — For Schenectady High School senior John Alois, the 7th annual Festival of Short Films is the perfect opportunity to practice his craft for a future career in the film industry.

A Schenectady High School summer program allows students to become filmmakers and have their work shown at Proctors.
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“I just love doing it. It doesn’t feel like work to me,” he said while taking a break from editing his film, “High School Survivor.”

Alois was one of 30 students who participated in the Schenectady High School John Sayles School of Fine Arts’ five-week program. Students learned writing, directing, filming, editing, selecting music, creating costumes and acting.

Four original short films of about 20 minutes in length written and produced by students will presented Thursday at 7 p.m. at Proctors. Admission is free.

Louise Gundrum, an English and theater teacher at the high school, said the program is a way to give students something interesting and fun to do over the summer that does not cost them anything.

Gundrum and her colleague, Scott Porter, an art and graphics art teacher at the high school, solicited film ideas from students and narrowed it down to four finalists.

“High School Survivor,” written and directed by Alois, is a takeoff on the popular CBS reality show.

“Free Hugs,” is about a youth, a romance and the obstacles he must overcome during the first few days of summer. Juniors Kevin Carey, Jordan Bray and Ben “Compton” Lansing wrote the script and Carey also directed the film.

After some of the students decided not to go forward with the scripts, Gundrum and Porter stepped in to contribute ideas. “Roots and Wisdom: A View from the Ground Up” is a documentary written and directed by Porter about a community-based gardening program that teaches youths about agriculture.

"Bronx Celebrates the 4th,” is the story of Gundrum’s shepherd and shar pei mixed breed dog who celebrates the Fourth of July at Galway Lake. Gundrum shot about a half-hour worth of video and students Mollie Orr, Kim Britten and Aden Brooks directed the film, adding narration.

“I gave them the footage and they had to put it together,” Gundrum said.

Porter said the students gained valuable experience. The Sayles school uses Final Cut Pro to edit the film.

“That’s the same program they use to do the major motion pictures,” he said.

Alois recruited some of his friends to help out, including 15-year-old 10th-grader Sam Lehrman, who jumped at the chance to take part in the summer program.

“I’m not going to be doing anything else besides wasting my summer sleeping,” he said.

Students definitely could not sleep in. Alois said because they wanted to maximize their filming time, they insisted their actors arrive at the set at 8 a.m. every day. That proved difficult for 17-year-old senior Kaila Barton, who was trying to handle the logistics of teenagers who have vacations and job commitments.

“Scheduling is the worst,” she said.