Producing the next great independent filmmaker

BY JENNIFER DOME
Staff Writer

BRICK — Whether it’s singing, playing an instrument, acting or drawing, students at the Jersey Shore School of the Arts are learning how to be storytellers.

And now the school is expanding into a new world of storytelling — independent filmmaking.

“You’ve got to do something like this because you love it,” Darren DeBari, co-director of the Jersey Shore School of the Arts, told students during a free workshop last Thursday.

DeBari told the youngsters about filmmakers who spent thousands of dollars making a movie, only to drop out of the business because they weren’t as successful as they’d hoped. But he also told them about movie makers who persevered — including Red Bank’s Kevin Smith who since directing the independent film “Clerks” has gone on to make numerous other films including “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma.”

DeBari and the school’s founder, Keith Leonard, have been involved in the production of their own independent film called “The College Murders.” The movie is set at Ocean County College in Toms River and Georgian Court College in Lakewood, among other more exotic locations such as the Cook Islands. It took more than four years and $25,000 to make the movie, DeBari said.

“It took us about a year to figure out what the ending was going to be,” he said. “They say there’s the movie that you write, the movie that you shoot and the movie that you edit.”

DeBari wrote, directed and edited the movie, while Leonard wrote the movie’s score. Now they want to use this experience to help other budding filmmakers.

The independent film classes will last eight weeks and is available for students 16 years old and up. The classes will start April 25 and students will learn about casting, shooting, directing and screenplay writing.

The school is also offering a short video class and an acting for film class. A video camera is required for the short video class and younger students are welcome to register for both of those class, DeBari said.

“They may not be into the technical stuff,” DeBari said about younger students, “but they love the idea [of acting for television and film].”

DeBari said he wanted to offer these classes because it gives the students a boarder spectrum and he loves guiding children interested in acting.

“You see it in their faces and I love that,” DeBari said. “They’re so well-rounded when they leave us.”

He said it’s important to get children away from the television and video games after school and “let them engage their imagination in something else.”

Since launching the Jersey Shore School of the Arts last fall, enrollment has more than doubled from 30 students to 75. Although the school operates out of St. Thomas Christian Academy, Salmon Street, students from any school and any town are welcome.

Leonard and DeBari have known each other for quite some time — they both worked at the local Barnes & Noble and started the AvantGarde Performing Arts group together. Leonard studied piano and bass instruments at Monmouth and Rutgers universities, composed scores for independent films and worked as the music director at the Red Bank Charter School. DeBari majored in drama at Ocean County College and Montclair State University and is an award-winning screenwriter.

For details on the Jersey Shore School of the Arts, call (800) 661-ARTS or log on to www.JerseyShoreArts.com. For more about DeBari and Leonard’s independent film, “The College Murders,” log on to: www.mindbreak.net.