PORT ANGELES — Picture this: A Pacific Northwest island summer horse camp’s idyllic days are shattered by the unexplained deaths of several horse farm employees.
The young campers are evacuated, leaving behind the remaining camp counselors to care for the horses, counselors who soon find themselves seeking an escape from the horror by hiding in hidden military bunkers under the island.
If that sounds like the plot of a summer popcorn thriller — then, yes, it is.
Several dozen high school students from Port Angeles and Sequim spent the spring and summer working on “Serenity Farm,” a movie produced by Port Angeles resident John Rodsett, who has been worked in films and TV for more than 30 years.
“Serenity Farm” is still in post-production; no release date is available at this time.
The movie will first be a direct-to-DVD release in Europe, said Robert Beebe of Olympic Game Farm, which provided animals for the venture.
If it performs well, it may be released later in the U.S., he said.
Students work on film
Port Angeles High School senior Marlee Glatz, 17, served as a production assistant to props director Tonya Carlson-Jolly, keeping track of equipment used by each actor in the film.
“It gets really organized,” Glatz said.
The filmmakers spent three days shooting on the North Olympic Peninsula — at the real Serenity Farm on Blue Mountain Road in Port Angeles and in abandoned military bunkers at Fort Worden State Park.
Glatz, who also had a chance to help with a smaller film in July and visited an uncle’s food TV set, giving her a frame of comparison, said she was impressed by the three big, professional motion picture cameras the filmmakers used.
“It’s a low-budget film, but they had good equipment,” Glatz said.
A dozen digital-media students from the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center joined them, learning the ins and outs of movie-making and earning a spot in the film’s credits.
The skills center offers additional vocational classes and draws high school students from Cape Flattery, Chimacum, Crescent, Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Quillayute Valley and Sequim school districts.
Many of the center’s classes, from automotive technology to digital graphics, offer college credits for students who successfully complete courses and are taken in addition to their regular high school course load.
‘Top of their class’
“Many are at the top of their class,” said instructor Lisa Hitt.
They became involved when filmmakers contacted Hitt at the skills center, seeking interns to assist in the production of “Serenity Farm.”
The chance for students to work on a real Hollywood-style film provided students a frame of reference for the skills they were learning, Hitt said.
Some worked from classrooms, creating digital special effects or on other technical aspects of the film, while others worked as assistants on the set, working with makeup artists, in costuming or on sets.
“The film experience was absolutely tremendous,” Hitt said.
Initially, spring semester students worked on the project, but when school let out for the summer, the movie makers still had several scenes to film, Hitt said.
The summer class Glatz signed up for was initially planned as a three-week introduction to digital graphics.
Glatz, an avid amateur photographer, had some basic skills in editing her own photos but wanted to do more, she said.
The three-week class was exactly what she needed.
Then filmmakers contacted Hitt — they needed students for more filming.
After contacting students who signed up for the class, the class became a one-week crash course in filmmaking, plus travel and long days on the movie sets.
Some dropped out, but others lined up to take their place.
“When word got out we would be on the film set, it really took off,” Hitt said.
Seventeen students, including Glatz, joined the film crew.
Glatz, who is known for always having a camera ready, found her calling on the set.
“I know I want to go into film now,” Glatz said.
“I want to be behind the cameras — a cinematographer,” she said.
For more about the film, visit www.serenityfarmthemovie.com.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.