Haverford Film Students Get Grant To Produce Movie

HAVERFORD, PA — A group of young filmmakers from Haverford High School got a funding boost to help them make their movie a reality.

Kelly Music recently provided a $900 grant to a film project produced by students in the Haverford High School Filmmakers Club.

Written by Katie Youn and Nate Drew, "ENGRAM" has been in active pre-production for
about a month.

According to producers, the short film, "ENGRAM" is about the length someone would go to deny the loss of a loved one.

German philosopher Martin Heidegger once claimed that people do not exist inside of time-rather we are time, able to project ourselves out of sequential time through our memories of past events. "ENGRAM" is the story about a teenage boy unable to deal with the guilt and grief of losing his high school sweetheart in a car accident and uses a device called ENGRAM to simulate his old memories of her.

The screenplay was completed earlier this year and the students have been working on all aspects of pre-production, including production design, storyboarding, revisions, mood boarding, blocking, budgeting, set design and many other aspects of the film.

"ENGRAM" has a 22-person cast, including 16 students from Haverford and Upper Merion high schools, and a 17-person crew consisting of students from Haverford High School, a photographer based out of Toronto, and students from various universities.

Filming is set to begin in mid-July and finish in mid-August.

Then, post-production will start at the beginning of September and will include marketing, editing, visual effects, sound design, and musical scoring.

The project hopes to raise about $2000 to cover direct costs.

The finished product will be entered into prestigious competitions including The San Francisco International Film Festival among others. Students hope is to deliver a finished product to film festivals worthy of a cash prize. Half of any prize money will be donated back to the Kelly Center for Music, Arts and Community to express the students' gratitude and to support other local artists.

"Our mission is to support creative young artists," Tom Kelly, Chairman and Executive Director of Kelly Music for Life, said. "These students are brimming with talent, creativity and confidence. They just need supporters to give them a chance."

Tax-deductible donations to support the ENGRAM student film project are welcome. Credit card or PayPal payments can be made online here or by Venmo at @Kelly4music and indicate ENGRAM with your donation in the notes.