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Show THE PARK RECORD www.newschoice.com SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1998 in tl A-17 EDUCATION EDITOR Stephanie Howell 649-9014 ext 1 18 mucatioii O mm Briefs TMMS 1 998 screenplay winners announced High school to consider closed campus Parents and guardians of Park City High School students are invited to meet Principal Hal Smith and Assistant Principal Bob O'Connor on Monday, Jan. 26 at the school, in room 149, at 5:00pm. From 5:00pm to 6:00pm Smith and O'Connor will be available to answer questions. At 6pm there will be a discussion of closed-lunch options for highschool students. P.C. school board discusses Graduation Pathways Program The Park City School Board met Tuesday, Jan. 20 in a single issue special spe-cial work session. The board met with representatives from the high school committee working on "Graduation Pathways". A policy change regarding high school graduation will be addressed at the next board meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 27 at 7:00pm. Prior to this meeting, at 5:30 at the Burns Fire Station, board members will meet with the Summit County Commissioners to discuss growth issues. Honor roll students gear up to make turns Honor roll students will once again be eligible for free season passes at The Canyons. Students who currently have honor roll season passes should drop off their report cards between Feb. 1 and Feb. 15 in order to keep i their passes active. Newly eligible students stu-dents should also drop off their report cards to receive a pass for the remainder remain-der of the season. There is a report card drop box in the season pass office at the main lodge at The Canyons. Students express their creativity through original scripts by Stephanie Howell OF THE RECORD STAFF FADE IN. INTERIOR. CAR-NIGHT. The scene opens with a red convertible driving dri-ving through a huge storm. Is this an excerpt from a competition film at the Sundance Film Festival? A new Wes Craven film? No. It is the opening scene of Amanda Edwards' winning entry in the Treasure Mountain Middle School's 1998 Sundance Screenplay Contest. Students at Treasure Mountain Middle School participated in the seventh annual Sundance Screenplay contest, writing and submitting five page screenplays which were judged by professional screenwriter Randy Volheim. The contest is the brainchild brain-child of Elizabeth Beall, a teacher at the middle school. Beall started the project seven years ago. This year, Beall wrote a grant, requesting $700 from the Park City Arts Council for the project. The grant was approved, and included a $200 donation from the Sundance Institute. This is the first year Sundance has supported the program financially. finan-cially. The program was initially named after Sundance in honor of the screening vouchers donated by the Institute each year. The vouchers are given to the winning students, stu-dents, as well as to participating teachers. The students' scripts tackle serious issues and, according to first-place winners Amanda Edwards, Neal Cannon, and Jessi Dominick took between several days and several weeks to write. Writers across the centuries and around the globe have run up against the dreaded "writers-block". These students were not immune. They found coming up with the initial story idea to be the hardest part of the procs. Seventh-grader Amanda Edwards said, "I sat there going, 'what do I write about?'" Eventually, she came up with one idea "that was kind of demented, and then changed it and changed it," until she found something she liked. Her script revolves around the chilling aftermath of a tragic car accident. Neal Cannon, an eighth grader, concurred. con-curred. "Once you have an idea, it sort of keeps on rolling." Neal had a general idea of what he wanted from the get-go. "I knew I wanted to write something intense, with more action." His screenplay centers pV : Pr ill SCOTT SM&PARK RECORD Middle school students Amanda Edwards, Jessi Domenick, and Neal Cannon proudly display their winning screenplays. screen-plays. The annual contest is sponsored in part by the Sundance Institute. around a 21 -year-old man named Kier who receives unexpected information about his dead father. This information is linked to a mysterious man in black and a strange phone call, and leads to a chase scene, and dramatic dialogue. Sixth-grader Jessi Domenick chose to write about an aspiring professional dancer, whose dreams are shattered when she is . diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. As she wrote, Jessi read her script aloud to ensure she had believable dialogue. "You really have to cut down on the dialogue to make it sound natural," she said. Due to the five-page limit, students were asked to start at the beginning of the screenplay, screen-play, establish characters and a problem, but not to write an ending or resolution to the problem. Anything exceeding five pages would not be read. Submissions were required to be written in proper form, com plete with scene headers, narrative, and dialogue. dia-logue. Students learned appropriate terminology termi-nology and form, and were given tips, such as: "Less is more. Use short sentences (this is how real people talk). Start scenes in the middle of what's going on. Include only what we can see or hear, not what the character char-acter is thinking." This last item is what the students found to be most different from writing a traditional tradi-tional story. "It's not really the essence of the story' that changes," the students said. "It's pretty much how you write it." Amanda explained, "You have to show (the characters') actions, instead of writing what they are thinking." The writers noted other specifics of the screenwriting genre. Jessi said, "It can only be day or night, not evening. Because, it doesnt matter when you film it." Over 100 screenplays were entered into the contest, and professional screenwriter and contest judge Randy Volheim, wrote specific comments on each one. "Every year it gets harder and harder (to select the winners) because the quality gets so much better," said Volheim. "It's so impressive what these kids do. Some of these, honestly, honest-ly, are better that what adults are producing. I'm creating competition for myself!" Volheim quipped. Volheim is enormously proud of the program and has been involved since it's inception, but credits Beall with it's creation and its ongoing success, suc-cess, saying, "I have such admiration for her." Volheim looks for three main elements when judging the work. The first is creativity. creativ-ity. "I look for something inspired, not just a rehashing of what (the students) have Please see Student, A-18 TS COMMUNICATIONS Now you can share your airtime with any phones on the same plan for as low as $24.50 per month 2 phone minimum Call for Information Regarding FILM FESTIVAL RENTAL PHONES! FREE Cellular Phone on selected price plans 2064 Prospector Ave. Suite 204 Park City, Utah 84060 (435) 655-8789 Al rTo u c h Cellular Contact us for all your Cellular, Tivo- Way Radio, and Paging needs OPEN WEEKDAYS 9AM - 6PM SATURDAY 9AM - 3PM mm listen to what you're getting in 1 998. ii $24.99 for 60 min. $39.99 for 200 min. $49.99 for 400 min. $69.99 for 600 min. $99.99 for 800 min. $119.99 for 1200 min. (42 vnlv.) (74- vnii.) (12 wlv.) (0t win.) Call us today at: I 800-IMAGINE Visit a participating dealer Park City Cellular 1 950 Woodbine Way 8 Park City (435) 649-7626 Park City Electronics (Radio Shack) 1776 Park Avenue, Suite 13 Park City (435) 649-2620 Heber Electronics, Inc. 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