Lights! Camera! Learning! Children Make Movie In Harper Film Camp

The cast and crew of the murder mystery movie “Broken Bonds” have gathered in the J Theatre at for last-minute rehearsals on their first day of shooting.

Actress and crew member Katie Diviak produced the storyboard for a scene scheduled to be shot later in the week. “That’s the scene where I die,” she said, grinning widely. “It’s fun.”

Diviak is 10 years old. Every member of the film’s crew is between the ages of 10 and 14. They have enrolled in a four-week film acting camp that is part of Harper College’s InZone program of summer enrichment activities for children. The youngsters assembled in the theater wrote the script and will film, perform and edit the movie themselves.

“I’m just here to make sure they don’t break the camera,” joked their instructor, Paul Barile.

Barile, who has worked full-time as an actor and filmmaker in Chicago for the past 10 years, shares teaching duties with Sarah Hall, also a professional actress. Barile teaches Mondays and Wednesdays, while Hall teaches Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is the second summer they have run the film camp.

Barile resembles the actor Kevin James, and in fact he was James’ stand-in when “The Dilemma” was filmed in Chicago. Two weeks into the film camp, Barile had developed an easy rapport with his 13 students. He started class by asking students to turn in their storyboards, which are like comic strips illustrating a scene’s camera angles.

Holding up an especially thorough example, Barile said, “This is a perfect shooting script. I could hand this to the camera guy, walk away to get a cup of coffee, and when I come back the film’s all done.”

“Are you going to do that?” a student asks.

“I can’t afford the coffee,” Barile replied.

Before filming started, the students rehearsed the five scenes they planned to shoot that day. First on stage were Haley Prochilo of Palatine and Victoria DiMelis, 11, of Inverness. They acted out a brief scene where their characters, who are high school friends, discover they are dating the same boy, “Davey, the burrito guy.”

The talk quickly became an argument where one friend calls the other a “man-stealing jerk.” The film’s director, Matthew Splitt, 10, of Schaumburg, asked DiMelis and Prochilo to repeat the scene a few times until he felt they got their characters’ emotions right.

Next, 12-year-old Palatine resident Jeff Luppino joined DiMelis onstage. Their scene revealed that he had an unrequited crush on DeMelis’ character and is jealous to learn she has a boyfriend.

“Think about closeups in that scene,” Barile advised Splitt, “because there’s a lot of emotion there.”

Diviak, of Arlington Heights, joined DeMelis for the next scene, not the one where she dies but for a “girl talk” phone conversation. Students watching from the audience worried how Diviak’s prop phone would ring. Barile assured them the sound effect would be added during post-production, when the film also would be edited.

“About 70 percent of the success of a film is in the editing,” he added.

Barile gave an example of a brilliantly edited scene from a movie released in 1995, which prompted Luppino to shout, “I love old movies!”

During a break, Prochilo said she took this class to learn about the filmmaking process and to develop her acting. Having performed in several plays, Prochilo said she was enjoying the film camp.

“I like that it’s a smaller class size,” she said. “This makes it easier to do stuff, and you have more attention focused on you.”

Another Palatine resident, Suhaas Venkatesh, 13, plays a character with multiple personality disorder. His character switches moods quickly, and also goes from a New Jersey to a British accent.

“It’s pretty fun to play him,” Venkatesh said, “because you can be different people.”

The class decided to film the first scene between Prochilo and DeMelis at a small cafeteria area adjacent to the theater lobby. Barile instructed Splitt and camera operator Albert Fudala, 12, of Lake in the Hills, how to film the master shot of both actresses, then to film the scene again with each girl in closeup. The other students acted as extras studying or chatting at nearby tables.

The crew moved outside to film the scene where Luppino learns about DeMelis’ boyfriend. Because the camera was not fully charged overnight, they needed to find a campus sidewalk near an outlet. They found the right spot outside the Avanté building. The crew completed this scene in half the time as the first, but class would end at noon and that hour was fast approaching.

Regrouping in the theater, the crew was able to film DeMelis’ half of the phone conversation before Barile gathered them for some parting words. Noting that they had captured only half the footage scheduled for that day, he told the students they would have to focus during the next three classes to complete principal photography. “Basically, they’re offering you this big buffet here, and all you’re eating today is the rice.”

After the students had left, though, Barile said he was confident they would finish “Broken Bonds” with time to spare.

“These are some of the smartest kids I’ve ever dealt with,” he said. “They’re really into it. They really want the film to succeed.”

Once the class is concluded on July 7, the film will be shown to family and friends during a “world premiere” at Harper. Students will receive a DVD of the film so they can show off their screen debut for years to come.