An award-winning media course has united aspiring student filmmakers and resulted in benefits that go beyond book learning at Freeport Area High School.

Students channeled their inner lights, camera, action for months, filming a behind-the-scenes peek into all aspects of creating a high school musical.

Junior and senior students enrolled in the yearlong Documentary Film course taught by broadcast media teacher Tawnya Lunz produced the documentary, titled “The Making of the Musical.” Lunz submitted the film to WQED, which will air the documentary at 10 p.m. Dec. 23.

Lunz and her students are responsible for BEE-TV, a broadcast program established in 1996 that showcases student-produced news stories focused on the district and community.

The class requirement typically includes each student producing a short-version documentary on a topic of their choice.

This year, Lunz decided to have the students work together as a team on the project.

Student co-producers include two Freeport Area High School 2023 graduates, Jackson Buterbaugh and James Davis, and seniors Evan Ozimek and Julia Simon.

Lunz submitted the film for consideration to WQED last summer and was thrilled when she learned from producer Minette Seate that it had been selected for broadcast.

WQED agreed to air the film with one condition: that the run time be trimmed from 85 minutes to 52 minutes.

Seate said the film was a natural fit for the station’s “Filmmakers Corner” series.

“Filmmakers Corner” spotlights local filmmakers producing independent films in Western Pennsylvania.

“I was impressed at how the kids worked together and with the quality, with the interviews of the cast, teachers, supporting players and musicians,” Seate said. “You can see how much they enjoyed doing it. It’s fun, musical and about a bunch of kids working together.”

Louis B. Ruediger | Tribune-Review Freeport Area High School media teacher Tawnya Lunz works with Documentary Film students Julia Simon and Evan Ozimek during a recent class.  

The film team included production assistants enrolled in Digital Editing who were required to film one day with the four main producers.

“Our goal was to have four cameras running at every rehearsal,” Lunz said. “Through the use of gimbals, tripods, a drone, a GoPro and multiple cameras, we were able to capture all the footage we needed and more.”

The spring musical, “No, No Nanette,” was directed by Tom Koharchik and former Radio City Rockette and choreographer Elizabeth Surgil.

Simon was tasked with editing the film.

“We had never filmed something this big,” said Simon, who hopes to study film editing at Point Park University.

Lunz praised Simon’s editing skills.

“Julia has once again done her school proud. She’s a master editor,” Lunz said. “My students and I have produced hundreds of projects over my last 26 years (teaching), and this is the most memorable by far.”

The documentary course includes studying the telling of a complete story with subplots, conflicts and resolutions through visual means, Lutz said.

“Other than this film, students make a short-format documentary about a passion of theirs. Most students will choose their family or their own personal talent as their topic,” Lunz said.

Co-producer Ozimek said participating in the creative process has helped him find his purpose.

Ozimek, who is diagnosed with autism, said student schedules were a challenge during production.

“My favorite part was coming together as a family. Our group, us four, we really came together as a family and had such camaraderie. I had never done something like this before,” Ozimek said. “I think what came out of it was an absolutely amazing experience that will be in the back of my mind for years to come.”

Courtesy of Jackson Buterbaugh Freeport Area High School students Jackson Buterbaugh (left), teacher Tawnya Lunz (center) and Jake Suwan hold the five awards the district received during the 2023 Digital Media Arts Consortium gathering April 20 at the Robert Morris University Events Center.  

The media program garnered several awards — including excellence in commercial, public service announcement, news package, feature package and black-and-white photography — during the 2023 Digital Media Arts Consortium gathering April 20 at the Robert Morris University Events Center.

“This district is so supportive of the arts,” Lunz said.

Jackson Buterbaugh, 18, of Buffalo Township is studying business administration at Butler County Community College, with plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree after earning an associate degree.

Buterbaugh said Lunz’s class impacted him, describing the experience as “falling in love with the cameras and everything about it.”

“I’ve always been interested in film, streaming video games and life stuff since I was little. My junior year, I took digital editing and that led to this,” said Buterbaugh, adding the peer collaboration taught him a variety of professional skills.

“The class taught me leadership and collaboration skills and time management,” Buterbaugh said. “I was a main editor with Julia when it all came together.”

The documentary was aired during a high school assembly. Lunz said the audience was so enthralled, “You could have heard a pin drop.”

“I had my parents attend. I was blown away watching it and seeing all the kids’ reactions,” Buterbaugh said. “So many students praised the film. Having it done was a love/hate feeling because it was a lot of work. But knowing it was over was good, too.”

Buterbaugh plans to study business with a minor in media.

“I will definitely use this film in my portfolio,” Buterbaugh said. “I would like to have a career in media. That was just one of the best times of my life. I really want to note that I’ve always been a jokester and some teachers thought I had a bad rep, but Ms. Lunz was a big role model in my life. She changed me because she was an amazing mentor.”

Simon said the editing process is tedious. The team used an editing program called Final Cut Pro to edit countless hours of raw footage filmed from August 2022 to March 2023.

The project was student-run, with everyone working together to conduct interviews, shoot footage and set up lighting.

“I was passionate about this since the sixth grade,” Simon said, recalling a middle school project that involved making a simple math music video with her phone. “I was like, I want to do something extra so I downloaded movie editing apps. And I plan to pursue this as a career.”

“Musicals are similar to sports teams,” Ozimek said. “I agree with that because it’s all people coming together with one common goal: to win the game. A musical is to entertain and put on a good show. There are so many layers to putting on a musical that people don’t realize, and our documentary does a very good job of highlighting and profiling just how in-depth the musical process is.”

Freeport’s production of “No, No Nanette” was nominated for 12 Henry Mancini Awards, annual honors recognizing excellence in high school musical theater in Butler, Lawrence, Beaver and Mercer counties.

The drama students won six 2023 Mancini awards, the most ever for the district, including Best Musical and Best Choreography.

Katelyn Hemphill received a best actress nomination for her lead role as Nanette.

“It really represents how hard we worked from beginning to end. It’s such a great idea. For the cast, we can look back at the whole process. I will definitely watch the WQED airing, and my parents are so excited,” Hemphill said. “The students filming did a really good job with all of the interviewing of the cast, and they shot lots of great B-roll. I feel like it was very professionally made. This is really impressive.”

Zachary Kladny, who was nominated for best actor, said the minute details filmed by the crew did not go unnoticed.

“It was crazy the quality of film these high school kids could do. They’re my peers and they did this. I really enjoyed the way they captured the way we all learned our choreography,” Kladny said. “This is cool because I will always have this as a souvenir and it’s validating to see all my hard work and that they wanted to make this film.”

Lunz said having WQED air the students’ documentary is the icing on the cake and a tribute to all the hard work that went into the musical and the film.

“I’m grateful for WQED’s recognition of this accomplishment for the producers, student body and the community of Freeport,” Lunz said.

To view the full version of the film, visit freeport.k12.pa.us.

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