Who: Grayson Cordes
School: New Canaan High School
Year: Class of 2011
Achievement: Grayson says he chose 's Narrative Filmmaking class his freshman year because he'd, "always been interested in art and tech stuff, and those two things are in film."
He discovered he had a passion and talent for film and continued to study with Kingsbury culminating in his senior year with Advanced Film 2.
His final project this spring was, "Antonella's Journal," a ten-minute film that he says is about, "a girl trapped in her mind and she can't get out of it ..."
What was his inspiration? As he explained, Kingsbury has his students keep a film journal. The idea he explained is, "to write your own thoughts and thoughts on movies you see," any observations about the world around you, which might inform your filmmaking.
In searching for a plot for his final film, he returned to his journal for inspiration. "I started going back through that and found themes, that were themes of my life ... I tried to incorporate my feelings," he explained.
Produced through the film studies program, he called the films the students produce a "big collaborative project," with classmates serving as each other's crew members and actors.
This year, thanks to Kingsbury, Grayson was exposed to documentary filmmaking when he became involved with his teacher in The Oral History Project at the Philip Johnson Glass House.
As he explained, he is particularly proud of the work done on the documentary, which he shot and edited.
He worked on the Port Draper film and did the camera work on the film made on Pedro Guerrero.
In addition to praising Kingsbury, he credits , who is the Coordinator of project for the Glass House for her work. "She was the lifeline between the high school and the Glass House. She was always in contact with me and she came up with the questions for Mrs. Gores and did the interview on the film."
Key to Awesomeness: Beyond film study, Grayson has competed in cross country and indoor track while in high school, as well as worked after school at Walgreens for three years.
While he says he hopes to continue making films, Grayson decided earlier this summer to study computer science in college. He will begin his studies at UConn this fall.
Saying he feels he will be, "more successful with web design," he plans, "a career in IT or web development."
Although he has not studied computer science formally, it's obviously also a passion.
Grayson is self-taught in several computer languages, and the developer of several websites, including www.needasig.com.
He says, "Most people don't know this closet nerd side of me, they'd probably be surprised to know this about me."
To see more of Grayson's film work, click here: http://vimeo.com/user3699882.
