By SUSANNA CONINE-NAKANO – Web Staff
Clarke Central High School freshman Sara Tonks is an amateur film maker and founded the Cinematography Club earlier this year.
“Sara is the mastermind behind the whole club. She is the one who came up with the whole idea of starting a cinematography club,” CCHS social studies department teacher Drew Wheeler said.
Tonks began making mostly original horror trailers around a year and a half ago. She makes trailers with her friends and family in her free time. Her friend, freshman Ella Sams, sparked her interest in cinematography.
“It started with Ella (Sams). I saw that she was making movie trailers and I thought that looks like fun, so I started making them with my family and friends,” Tonks said.
Tonks enjoys making horror trailers and writing the scripts. The actors in her trailers use improve in order to achieve to final product.
“I like the creativity and creating a character. I love writing, and it’s another form of writing. To me, it’s really fun and relaxing to make trailers,” Tonks said.
Tonks has some experience with acting. She was in the Drama Club’s fall production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
“I had a lot of fun being in the musical. The cast was just amazing,” Tonks said.
Tonks uses two cameras to shoot her trailers and the Cinematography Clubs’s current film.
“We have two cameras, so I’ll pull clips from different angles but of the same conversation. If you do it from two cameras it is less stressful, easier and the finished product is better,” Tonks said.
Tonks has put most of her filming time into the Cinematography Club’s first film. Tonks is the director and camera man.
“I like filming and directing because I can get the shot just the way I imagined it on camera,” Tonks said.
The film is a horror-comedy. It is based around detention and a killer. A group of students are put in detention and they start to die, one by one.
“We are making a film about basically some kids getting in detention and then someone starts killing them all,” Tonks said. “It’s kind of gruesome but it’s a lot of fun because it is really funny the way that they die. By the end everyone is going to die expect the killer and he will just leave.”
Tonks enjoys making trailers so much she has even thought about cinematography as a career even though she knows it is a competitive profession.
“I would love to be a director when I grow up, but I know it is very unlikely. I am not going to plan for it, but I’m going to try and take some directing classes in college,” Tonks said.
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