Keaghan Hays and Jess Strickland working together during the filming of a short film.

Grand Junction High School students will be granted an opportunity to be part of the Film Exposure Program for the second time starting second semester.

Rachel DeWeber and her colleague Arielle Brachfeld, founder of the program, launched their first year of the Film Exposure Program, first and second semester students were able to attend this program. The Film Exposure Program is centered toward students who have a passion for film and want to pursue it either in a profession or academically. Through this program, their goal is to help enhance any student’s skill set in filmmaking, or to help expose and teach them the beauty of filmmaking.

They have structured this program to be a hands-on learning experience to teach younger film makers the in and outs of film. 

“We encourage students to be creative and express themselves freely during this program, therefore, students can expect to have a fun time collaborating with their peers, professional filmmaking mentors, and teachers in the comfort of their own schools,” said DeWeber.

GJHS students who attended the Film Exposure Program all had a different kind of experience that they had found unique to themselves, either from the community the got to meet, or the things they did. 

“We were able to work from start to finish on two scenes and so going through the process from pre-production to production to post-production was super helpful to understand a little bit more about how the film industry operates,” said GJHS junior Reagan Jones. 

This program helped her in many ways, not only because she got to experience film, but also because she got to have a community that supports her and has the same interests. She was super glad that she had figured out about this program.

Other students from GJHS were able to do mostly everything (filming, editing, sound, and acting). They all had an amazing experience during their time doing this program. Many of them had said that the teamwork that they experienced was different than they expected; that the writing of the film, and the making of the film was a whole different experience.

Rachel DeWeber and Arielle Brachfeld have been working closely with the Colorado Office of Film, Television, and Media (COFTM). 

Mesa County Public Libraries and 970 West Studios represent the Film Exposure Program as a fiscal agent and help by getting crucial resources in terms of equipment and pace for students to use throughout this program.

Any students can be involved in the Film Exposure Program. If you find an interest in the film making process, there are classes you can take for it, but you do not need to take classes to enter the Program.

The Film Experience Program is a fun and interactive experience that students from Grand Junction High School, and other High Schools alike have had the chance to partake in. This program is highly recommended to all film lovers.