Ganderia wins People’s Choice Award

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GANDERIA FILMMAKERS — "Couch Fry" filmmakers rock the red carpet at Oxford Hills District M'imovie competition.

OXFORD — On Wednesday night during the M’iMovie Festival the movie that the Ganderia Middle School submitted, "Couch Fry," won the people’s choice award and first place in its division.

Ganderia is an alternative middle school, and the class was able to fit video production in as a new experience and completed the task within two months.

Ganderia is a small class of five and finished the movie with little help from their teacher. “We all worked together to make it happen,” says Tesla Whitaker, an eighth grader and veteran of previous M’iMovie Festivals.

Together the students came up with the idea of making the movie based on 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go!, a guide for being healthy. A few ideas circulated around, but after a few days, one of the students came up with the idea that the movie could be based on "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

Everyone liked the idea and within two days, the script was written. They spent the next two weeks shooting the movie. The actors improvised often, making it quite humorous. When the editing process came around, the movie had to be cut down to five minutes, which meant that many of the funny parts had to be cut out.

By the deadline, the movie was ready and was submitted into the festival. The students considered this a big achievement, and will be releasing a director’s cut to YouTube.

The script was written by Ganderia Middle School students Mae Gosnell of Otisfield, a sixth grader, and Tesla Whitaker of Norway, an eighth grader.

For more information, contact Susan Bryant, Ganderia Middle School Head Teacher, at susangbryant@yahoo.com or 857-231-1768 or Richard McIntosh, M’iMovie Festival Director, at Oxford Hills School District.