Justin Park is hoping his success will inspire other high school filmmakers.
The 2018 Carmel High School graduate has directed a narrative short film, “You’ve Been on My Mind,” that will be screened during the Indy Shorts International Film Festival, set for July 26 to 29 at the Newfields at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The festival is presented by the Heartland Film Festival.
“It’s sort of in that style of musical from the 1960s,” Park said. “One of the most unique things about the film is not only is the cast and crew from the high school, we also had the music composed and produced by high school students.”
The movie is just under 8 minutes.
Emma Hedrick, another 2018 CHS graduate, composed the title track, “You’ve Been on My Mind.”
“The film itself has been a longer project. It’s been over a year,” Hedrick said. “Originally, when Justin asked me to compose for the film, I wrote something and that didn’t take very long. I worked on it for an hour or so in study hall time. Then I worked with it in a small jazz band time arrangement. We recorded it and I forgot about it. Justin was filming additional scenes, so I sent him a voice memo with lyrics I wrote to go along with it, and he really liked the lyrics. So, we had to re-record with the lyrics and did a smaller combo. The original one was mostly horns playing the melody.”
Hedrick is headed to the University of Miami to study vocal jazz performance.
Park, whose film “Kara Deady: The Pole Vaulter” was the Indiana Documentary winner in the High School School Film Competition at Heartland in 2017, is going to study film at New York University this fall.
“This is the first time we’re showing it to the general public and we hope they enjoy watching it and they can appreciate all of our hard work,” Park said. “I hope our film can inspire other high school filmmakers that they can do bigger projects. Just because they are a high school student doesn’t mean we have to do smaller shows. We put together a team of people of different backgrounds and interests and we’re all excelling in our fields. We’ve managed to come together as a team and complete this project.”
The film will be shown at 4:45 p.m. July 27 and 12 p.m. July 28 at DeBoest Lecture Hall.
‘Grateful’ set for film festival
Park was director of photography for another film, “Grateful.”
“It wasn’t easy to balance both things together,” Park said.
“Grateful” is a 17-minute documentary, which chronicles the story of Jenni Berebitsky, who is battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Berebitsky, 42, was diagnosed nine years ago in March of 2009. At the time, she was told by a doctor she had 18 to 24 months to live.
Amy Pauszek, whose Where’s Amy column appears in Current editions, serves as one of the executive producers and co-producer for the 17-minute documentary.
“Her story will warm your heart while teaching us to live an engaging, productive and meaningful life,” Pauszek said.
Pauszek met filmmaker and co-producer Paul Nethercott last year at the Heartland Film Festival, where they both had films.
“We had connected as filmmakers and shared a common interest of making films that will make a difference,” Pauszek said.
Nethercott contacted Pauszek after the festival in late November 2017 and told her he was planning on directing a new documentary short on Berebitsky.
“After we met a few times and having known Jenni through the Heartland Truly Moving Jury Committee, I knew this was the next short I had to produce,” Pauszek said.
The film will be shown at 5 p.m. July 26 and 7:45 p.m. July 29 at the Toby Theater at Newfields
For more, visit indyshorts.org.
