A film directed by a student at West, called “Finding You Again” recently won a pitch contest, where a panel of senior directors, editors, and executives applauded a film concept. West senior Riley Bockhol (the contest winner) aims to now direct this film. Bockhol focuses on a coming-of-age setting, where two high school freshmen—who were once friends—now begin to grow apart. One is more outgoing, the other is more comfortable as a loner.
“Ever since I was younger, I just always would make films with my friend. And I would be the one to edit and then laugh about it. […] I’d be like, ‘hey, do you want to go pretend to make the skit? You pretend to be this person, I’ll be this person’. We’d just record each other. I didn’t really realize that film was a part of my life until I got older, then I took the film class at the Career Tech Center, and I was like, ‘wow, I want to do this for a career’,” Bockhol said.
Bockhol aims to hire West students for her films, and she did so for this one. One of the actors, Junior Vera Herban, is lucky enough to have previous experience in this role as a student in theater.
“I love acting. I do theater a lot. When Riley came to meet me with this, I really was excited for this opportunity because I thought it would be really cool to act in a different form than stage acting. To act in film acting is quite a bit different, I’ve learned. But yeah, it’s just such a cool opportunity,” Herban said.
Recently, Bockhol and her team have been awarded a new camera for winning a national pitch contest. Bockhol’s stories mainly focus on female leads.
“Bockhol, a film and new media student, developed the concept based on her desire for more stories featuring female leads. The plot focuses on two girls entering their first year of high school with different social motivations,” 9&10 News, a news broadcast said.
She noticed that lots of films usually have a majority of men as actors, and she wanted to change that.
“Every year at the Career Tech Center, we do ‘Skills’. It’s a film competition. Last year I did it. We used two guys because that’s what we have for actors. I was thinking for my final this year who I wanted to cast. As I was driving home, I was like, ‘I don’t want to use men. I kind of want to have females. I want to be a film director that definitely has more female leads’. […] Then I decided that I was going to do that for my Skills project,” Bockhol said.
Even though her film casts mostly women, Bockhol aims to cast students of West who are already comfortable with acting. When Herban was asked to audition because of her experience in theater, despite her struggles, she took the opportunity to experience a new way of acting.
“Yeah, don’t be scared. I know it’s scary going on stage and putting yourself out there. I used to have a terrible stage fright, and I still do. But if you don’t put yourself out there and you never try, then you’re never going to make it,” Herban said.
As the director, Bockhol truly wants the audience to understand the authenticity of her film—and the authenticity of the female teenage experience.
“I want to make Josie’s character have awkward moments. Like [The film] ‘Lady Bird’ has some awkward moments. And I want Josie to have these awkward moments where she tries to say a joke and it doesn’t land,” Bockhol said, “It’s just a little awkward, then she’s like, ‘okay, just kidding’. Just some more awkward moments to give Josie more characterization.”
Bockhol responds to a film culture often working against women. She is also aware that younger people, especially young women, are afraid of the struggles that may come with being a female director.
“I think that everybody is born with a purpose. And you just have to find that. And once you do, you’re going to run with it. Even if you don’t fully trust yourself, you do have to believe in yourself and know that you can do it,” Bockhol said.
