Award-winning films
Produced by high school students
Located in West Haven, Connecticut, the GNETICS Film Group is comprised of students from the advanced digital media class at the Engineering & Science University Magnet School (ESUMS). The team produces documentaries, skits, short films, and PSAs covering topics like safe driving, UN Sustainable Development Goals, and student aspirations. Student documentaries showcase everyone and everything from professional skaters, mobile app developers, and the beautiful Galapagos islands, and also touch on serious issues such as the lack of diversity in the American education system.
Advanced Digital Media
The advanced digital media class at ESUMS allows students to flex their creative muscles by developing all different types of films. The new state-of-the-art school contains all the resources students need to produce films, leaving nothing in the way of creativity.
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Students learn the three foundations of filmmaking: pre-production, production, and post-production. In the pre-production phase, students work in teams to develop storylines and review competition requirements. Then, the students set off to work storyboarding, scripting, scheduling interviews, and securing locations for their shoots.
Production is at the heart of the filmmaking process. All different types of production equipment is used, from Sony PXW-FS5 cameras to Telefunken AK47-MKII microphones. Students learn the ins and outs of all of this equipment so that they can get the most out of their gear on the day of a shoot. Advanced production topics include lighting interviews and green-screen shots, using stabilization equipment like the DJI-Ronin M, and operating a boom mic for clear audio.
After a shoot, students craft their stories and make the most of their footage in the post-production stage. In the classroom, state-of-the-art iMac 5K desktops and Dell Precision workstations are used for transcoding and editing footage. Students get hands-on experience working with industry-professional software like Apple Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Avid Pro Tools, and Apple Logic. Working in teams, students review each other's videos and suggest improvements so that only consistently high-quality videos are branded with the GNETICS branding. Advanced post-production topics include color correction, color grading, audio mastering, and proper exporting for the desired medium.
More than anything else, advanced digital media students learn how to be independent and self-motivated learners. The class follows a "flipped classroom" approach, where class time is mainly used for collaboration and individual assistance rather than lectures. This hands-on approach to learning ensures students develop new communication and digital media skills they keep with them for life.
“Unlike all the other art forms, film is able to seize and render the passage of time, to stop it, almost to possess it in infinity. I’d say that film is the sculpting of time.”
– Andrei Tarkovsky