ARTS

A filmmaking journey begins

MSA’s McLain Boyd on road to creating movies

McLain Boyd, a senior at Mississippi School of the Arts, is making strides in the school’s film program.

Boyd describes his audition to the arts school as his filmmaking journey, citing the Brookhaven Little Theatre as his foundation.

“My media arts video audition submission was really the beginning of my filmmaker journey,” Boyd said. “You know the cliché, start with what you know. Since my second home is our community theatre, that felt like a natural fit for me to stage my first attempt at filmmaking. And like many of my peers at BLT, I had recently taken up tap dancing thanks to being in our local production of ‘Newsies.’”

His background in the theatre enabled him to create his first short film submission, titled “The Dancing Janitor.” The short film focused on a janitor working at a theatre who dreamed of becoming the star of the show, tap-dancing center stage for all to see.

This dream was all in his head, because at the end of the film he is brought back to the real world where his boss is calling his name.

“It was a very simple film shoot,” Boyd said.

“It took probably around 30 minutes of filming at the theatre. I used my iPhone to film everything. Then, I used the iMovie app to edit the scenes. My main objective with my audition submission was to attempt to visually tell a story in 60 or 90 seconds.”

The film didn’t last long, but McLain hoped to impress the instructors at MSA with his out of the box thinking.

“I knew my video was a beginner level entry,” Boyd said. “Yet, my hope was that MSA instructors could see my desire to learn and see potential in working with me.”

For his audition, Boyd was given 90 minutes to create a full storyline for his given scenario. He also had to prepare

Story By Keith Hall Photos By Gracie Byrne

camera shots, characters, costumes and other needed details.

“For anyone auditioning, I would suggest to have fun with it and turn their focus to showing effort and creativity in their film submission and audition,” Boyd said.

Now, more than a year after his audition, Boyd has started his senior year at MSA.

“When we went home for spring break we were all under the impression that we’d be back at school the next week like everything was normal,” Boyd said.

Boyd is entering his senior year of high school this fall at Mississippi School of the Arts and is eager to see all of his peers once again in an on-campus environment.

The school’s environment is very welcoming with its motto being “No place for hate” and a student body that prides itself on being a part of an inclusive safe zone where all kinds of people are made to feel at home within the school’s campus. 2020 has not been a normal year, and weeks went by with school being postponed more and more due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students at MSA like Boyd had the added pressure of having to finish their projects at home.

“Some students were lucky — they had the materials and supplies to create something for their projects,” Boyd said. “But some people relied on what the school could provide as well. I was lucky enough to be able to film my project with my iPhone using iMovie.”

Because he was at home, Boyd was unable to use the school’s equipment, nor did he have any cast members to film.

“My family helped me film mine,” Boyd said. “I worked out a script, we filmed it at our house while under lockdown and we were able to put together something that I was really proud of. None of them are trained actors necessarily, but they handled it well.”

McLain Boyd is a senior at Mississippi School of the Arts, where his discipline is media arts.

For his audition, Boyd was required tocreate and submit a short film in order to be accepted by the arts school. Prospective students audition the spring semester of their sophomore year of high school.

Boyd talked a lot about how the current situation has inspired many people to come out of their shells artistically. With apps like TikTok, people have been given a release from all the dreariness of quarantine life and a new platform to share their creativity and ideas.

The film series that Boyd credits that first started his curiosity about what it takes to make a movie is the Star Wars franchise. He excitedly talked about how both the practical and CGI effects in those movies inspired many of the movie franchises we all love today like the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

Like Star Wars, many people look forward to coming out multiple times a year, with big releases often times coming across has cultural events that you almost have to go see.

Boyd doesn’t think that the cinematic universe concept is one that will influence filmmakers any more than it already is, citing that those kind of movie franchises rely upon world building and established lore while also calling for a budget that many projects don’t have at their disposals.

But under the right circumstances its something that movie goers have shown that they do enjoy, oftentimes due to the “bigger world” each movie in the franchise takes place in.

The thought that Spiderman or Thor may show up at the end probably brings a few extra people to the new MCU release when it comes out in their local theater.

Boyd’s film knowledge isn’t limited to just big ticket releases — his knowledge also includes movies from the ’50s and ’60s like “Psycho,” “Sunset Boulevard” and “North by Northwest.”

He even admires foreign films providing examples of the French New Wave and the German Expressionism era of filmmaking and says “400 Blows” by François Truffaut, is a sleeper hit about 1950s France, is one film more people should check out.

“One thing I kind of started to learn is that you can learn anything from watching a film,” Boyd said. “Films represent life. Even with bad films, every film has a story, and they’ve inspired me to want to tell my own. MSA has really helped me a lot with that.”

Boyd hopes to inspire people who may have been curious about joining the art school and hopes that they will give it a try, saying you may be better than you think you are and not to be discouraged by other’s opinion of the school.

“A lot of my friends with MSA like doing the arts and working in that field. It’s made us better people,” Boyd said. “We’ve been able to not only understand each other better, but also ourselves better. I really think if you’re working in the arts, it kind of heals you a little bit.”

Boyd said three concepts would make a better world, a better Mississippi or even just a better Brookhaven: collaboration, unity and vision.

“I would love to see MSA kids visit with other schools and share our talents with some of the other students,” Boyd said. “Maybe help someone find a new way to express themselves along the way.”

Boyd believes that everyone can learn by listening, not just artists.

“I believe that if we should spend more time talking to each other and recognizing everyone’s value and just listen, that’s something we don’t always do,” Boyd said. “Sometimes, we only want to hear what we want to hear. Sometimes we don’t listen to what other people have to say. I feel like we’d be more united if we all listened to each other and found ways to work together and then we could make life better for everyone.”

Finally, Boyd stated that having a vision has the ability to change your life.

“Sometimes in the culture that we live in, we only think about ourselves,” Boyd said. “But as the saying goes, ‘The world ends with you.’ If you stay closed off, you’re only going to know yourself but if you open yourself up? You will not only get to know different people, but you’ll discover different cultures and ideas that you never could have imagined. All because you decided to open up your eyes to the world around you, and realized you were a part of something bigger than just yourself.”