A Year of Movies

Photography students create a movie-themed calendar. 

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Want to watch a movie but don’t know what to pick? Just ask the cinephiles in Honors and Advanced Photography. They have a list of 365 films worth watching — one for each day of the year. They compiled their recommendations for the class’s annual calendar assignment, and they are on display in the Main House.

The twelve-month calendar features images created in the likeness of iconic movie posters — with a twist. Our students' artwork contains photography of their classmates or a special guest that emulates those created by Hollywood studios. After setting up the shoot and capturing the images, the students used Adobe Photoshop to create a poster that could be mistaken for the original. 

Some of the images are scary good, including seniors Marcus Lo’s American Psycho and Maya Gerum’s IT and sophomore Shep Wilcox’s The Silence of the Lambs. The comedy film posters have the viewers chuckling at their interpretation. The Mean Girls poster by senior Julianna O'Brien features Art Department Head and Photography Teacher Lindsay Lehmann as Cady Heron. The Rolling Stones magazine cover-inspired artwork seen on The School of Rock movie poster was photographed and designed by senior Brenton Lynch. Senior Aidan Cho recreated the Stepbrothers poster with a unique twist — his reads Shepbrothers, a call out to one of his models and classmates, Shep Wilcox. Not all of the photos featured members of the class. Senior Mer Bergendahl recruited Ceramics Arts and Sculpture Teacher Sarah MacLeod and Director of Studies Doug MacLeod’s son — who is the spitting image of a young Macaulay Culkin — for her Home Alone artwork.

“The class really put our heads together to complete this project. Our photo shoots were so energetic and uplifting,” said Maya. “Serving as models for our classmates taught us about what it means to be in front of the camera and how to make our own models more comfortable in the future when we are behind the camera.”

If the creative artwork doesn’t inspire the next movie you decide to watch, the "A Year of Movies" calendar also has daily recommendations. Every month has a genre, and all of the movie suggestions fort the month fit within that category. For February, the class has romantic comedy recommendations. You could find your next horror flick from October's listings or a new holiday favorite in December.

“This project was a test of their attention to detail and control of lighting and environment,” said Lehmann. “Each student participated in the planning, modeling, photographic, and post-processing of the calendar, and the final result is something they should be proud of.”