Daniel Konstantinovic
Reporter
Behind a tripod in Waveny Park, senior Sam Reynolds stands with his hand outstretched, giving direction to his actors while he keeps the other resting on the camera, making sure it captures every picturesque moment. In a school with a variety of artists, writers, and musicians, Sam is one of the few student filmmakers, and has a history with the medium stretching back to his early years.
Sam has been creating and editing his own productions from an early age. “I’ve been interested in films since first grade, but I didn’t really start making films until sixth grade,” he said. “I made parodies of popular movies like ‘The Matrix’. They were really stupid and poorly made looking back at them now, but they were good because they got me into the filming and editing processes.”
Sam said that ‘American Beauty’ was the film that had the largest impact on him. “In seventh grade I saw ‘American Beauty’ with Kevin Spacey which just blew me away,” he said. “I was very impressionable, and when I saw that movie it just felt like that was the movie that I wanted to make. It blew my mind that someone could make a film with thoughts so similar to my own.”
Sam draws inspiration from a wide array of film genres. However, he does not like to focus solely on one style because it could be detrimental to his creative process.
“I always saw myself making dramas, but as I make more movies and explore styles, I’m not sure if I want to limit myself to one genre,” Sam said. “I feel like I can do a lot.”
Sam likes to explore different creative styles from time to time during the writing process, but finds that he has a particular style he prefers to come back to.
“I’ll make a script, but when you’re filming with a lot of people it’s a huge collaboration, so I like to let them kind of do their own thing with it,” he said. “It’s called ‘mumblecore’. You just write down a general idea and let the actors run with it, like an improv.”
While Sam writes all of the scripts for his films, he said he still feels that the writing process is where he struggles most. “Scripts are really hard,” he said. “I find that I kind of underestimate the process of it because I’ll get distracted, and by the time I finish one story, I’ve already thought of another that interests me. It’s hard to follow through, but when you finish a script it’s really rewarding.”
Though collaboration is something Sam enjoys, he says that he likes to have complete control over his scripts. “I don’t know why I like controlling my scripts so much,” Sam said. “When I’m in the writing process I like knowing that it’s my ideas being put in there and that the story becomes what I envisioned. I don’t mean that in a selfish sense, but I trust my own way I want to tell the story more than another person’s.”
Though he has many films in his repertoire, Sam said that he is searching for a definitive filmmaking process and style. “When I try to make something serious, I feel like I get too caught up in the process, and I’m actually trying to ease up on that because I think it should come naturally,” he said. “I have a process and tend to stick to it, but lately I’m finding that I should be comfortable writing my own way and that I can worry about technical things later.”
Sam finds many current New Canaan High School students willing to participate in the making of his films. “Surprisingly, a lot of people want to act and be in movies,” Sam said. “I think it’s actually a lot of people’s secret passion to act and be on camera.”
Sam does, however, have a film crew that he consistently works with. “I do have a group I go back to, but I try not to limit myself. Austen Deery and I write a lot, Davis Baer does the music a lot, and Noah Hedley acts in a lot of my films. I really trust him as an actor because he takes direction really well.”
Senior Noah Hedley has acted in four of Sam’s films throughout high school and is part of his regular film crew. “Sam came to me a few years ago and asked if I wanted to be in a movie he was making, so I said what the heck,” Noah said. “I like that Sam is very open to new ideas while filming. It’s cool how we don’t even need a script and can just come up with an improv on the spot.”
Though he said that film can be a very difficult medium to master, Sam believes that film is the most effective form of storytelling. “Visually, you can’t take shortcuts,” he said. “The audience expects everything to be perfect, and if it’s not it becomes very easy to critique because if there’s just one thing wrong in the editing process, it can break the illusion. What’s great about film is that you have control over every aspect of the storytelling: you can tell the story in any way that you want.”
Sam plans to continue to study film in college. “I’ll probably go to school in California just because I feel like it’s sort of the place to be. It’s also a risk and a different world than what I’ve known here. I want to put myself in a different place, and taking that risk and that adventure would be good, it’s something that I think I need,” Sam said. “The dream would be to have a job where I can make the films I want, and for whoever’s funding my project to have enough faith in me to give me complete creative freedom.”
