In the moments before the camera rolls, there's that anticipation. Anything can happen in the movies. It's a new feeling for the kids working in a soundstage on TCU's campus Wednesday afternoon.
"It's actually something I'm doing. I just fall in love with film even more," said Courtlyn Walker, a 12th-grader at TCC South FWISD Collegiate High School.
The students are all part of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Fort Worth, taking part in a two-week camp run by the Lone Star Film Society. Industry pros school the kids in every step of the process, starting by breaking them into teams to write a script.
"There was one comedy, there was one really big epic disaster movie," said Chad Mathews, executive director of the Lone Star Film Society.
The group settled on a zombie horror film that they're now bringing to life.
"It's given me a better perspective of what it's like to be somewhat in Hollywood," said Tre'Veon White, an 11th-grader at Polytechnic High School.
Most of the kids don't have access to film classes at their high schools.
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“We didn't have any of this," White said.
So this is their one shot to experience a world they've only seen on screen.
"A lot of times, our kids tend to define themselves by the neighborhoods that they grow up in," said Matt Sinclair, branch site director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Fort Worth. "So the more we're able to expand their horizons, the more we're able to show them that there's a future that they get to define and that's not defined for them."
Courtlyn Walker dreams of being a director.
"Whenever I was watching movies and I'd get chills and stuff, I just kind of fell in love with it," Walker said. "That's most definitely important to me to try to represent the black women out there that are trying and I'm trying, so that's really important to me."
The students will edit the finished product and present it on the big screen at the Lone Star Film Festival this fall.
"They do the red carpet, they take photos," Mathews said. "And they'll be hungry to do it again."
And who knows who the next star could be? Anything can happen in the movies.
