ASMS students star in film for Mobile Bay National Estuary Program

asms.JPGView full sizeParticipants in "A Redfish Tale" at Alabama School of Mathematics and Science included (seated, from left): Josh Taylor, Mary Katherine Grissom, Demetrius Mosley, Devin Overton, Karen Finklea, Zach VanScoy, Kaytie Simpson, Jen Lim, Shelby Montesani; (standing): Alex Barnes, Dave Barnes, Marta Mozer, Megrez Mosher, Cliff Derbins, Garrett Hutchins, Lynn Rabern, Valentina Corbett, Dr. Joe Rambo and Sophie Leonard.

MOBILE, Ala. -- Valentina Corbett and Garrett Hutchens didn’t know when they enrolled at the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science they’d be actors one day.

But that’s just the situation they found themselves in recently as the two were selected to star in a short film for the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program.

The film, titled “A Redfish Tale,” is about two students who must complete a video project about the watershed. Hutchens’ character, Zack, a slacker, doesn’t care about the environment and doesn’t want to participate. Corbett, who plays the more studious Kelsey, tries to convince him to take the project seriously.

Hutchens said he then faces a “divine intervention,” when two talking redfish — named Jimbo and Thibodeaux — convince him to take the subject matter seriously.

“I learned how what we do on land affects the water,” Hutchens said. “I also learned about the filming process, how it works and how they put it all together.”

The film was shot over two weekends on the campus of the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science in midtown Mobile by Emmy-Award-winning videographer Lynn Rabren.

“We wanted to use students who are motivated to change the world,” said Megrez Mosher, who wrote “The Redfish Tale.” “It was a lot of fun working with people who were very passionate about the theatrics as well as the scientific content.”

The 20-minute film was produced with a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance. It will be distributed as an educational film on nutrient loading and pollution.

“It’s a great opportunity to enlighten kids and adults about the path of water from the land to the sea,” Rabren said. “It goes down the drain, runs off the driveway, from your lawn, into a drainage pipe, to a small creek. It’s not disappearing. It has an effect all the way down into the Gulf of Mexico.”

In particular, the film focuses on how too many nutrients — including fertilizer and manmade chemicals — create deadzones in the Gulf, where oxygen is depleted and organisms can’t live.

Corbett and Hutchens, both sophomores and 16, said they’re looking forward to the film’s release, which they hope will be before the end of the school year.

“It’s going to be neat to see how it all comes together,” Corbett said. “My whole family wants to come to the premiere.”

Corbett is from Enterprise and Hutchens is from Satsuma. Corbett, whose father is in the military, said the only acting she had ever done was participating in a video welcoming students to Fort Rucker. Hutchens, the son of a music minister, has been in some church plays.

The two were among 35 students who tried out for their parts and received some coaching before filming. They said they were given the freedom to ad lib many of their lines. About 10 students played extras as classmates. And chemistry teacher Joe Rambo plays a teacher.

Hutchens said he’d like to go into the medical field one day and Corbett said she’d like to go into fashion merchandising and design.

Rabren has won several Emmys, for network news pieces and for a documentary on the father of the personal computer.

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