PCHS senior calls ‘action’ on filmmaking aspirations
November 7, 2024 at 12:13 a.m.
Like many who endured it, Toni Ash found herself in dire need of something to do during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During the whole isolation period, my life was just about art,” she said.
It was a subject the Port Chester High School senior always had an interest in—she’s dabbled in drawing, theater and dance at various points in her life. But there was one medium she had yet to try her hand at: Film.
“I’ve always loved movies, but I hadn’t really appreciated it as an art until I was in high school,” she said.
Though it’s an interest she discovered later in her Port Chester Schools career, it’s now become a passion guiding what she wants to do with her life. Her first step was her acceptance into the Ghetto Film School’s New York Fellowship Program, where she’ll spend three years honing her skills and making movies.
“My journey really started with my interest in cameras,” Ash said. “So when COVID happened, I begged my mom for a camera and I just started taking pictures.”
She spent days taking advantage of clear streets, capturing images around the Village of Port Chester and developing her skills as a photographer before shifting towards filmography.
“It was kind of a natural transition for me,” she said of the change. “I really fell in love with the camera and wanted to learn about everything it could do.”
The 17-year-old said her interest carried into her academic life at Port Chester High School.
“I started taking a film class at school and I saw this whole other side of movies. It was like this whole other world that I didn’t know about.”
She said it was in that course that she learned to broaden her horizons and watch movies made in other countries.
“Nearly everything we see in theaters is really American,” Ash said. “But there’s a lot of incredible work out there that just wasn’t popular here.”
Her interest quickly became a large part of her life, and it was something she was always ready to talk about—which led her to learn about the Ghetto Film School.
As a member of Delta GEMS, a group founded by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority alumni from Syracuse University who work to help African American students succeed academically and socially, she made a friend with common interests who let her know about the fellowship.
“We were just talking about our love for film, and she told me she was applying for the program,” Ash recalled. “And she said that I should apply, too, so I did.”
The Ghetto Film School, a nonprofit based in the Bronx, strives to create a diverse generation of filmmakers and receives funding from a variety of entertainment companies including Netflix, Sony and AMC.
Its Fellowship Program is a three-year commitment where students learn every aspect of making film, from conceptualizing a story to directing a shoot. Along the way, they’re trained in the technical aspects of equipment and editing software.
Students are taught by industry professionals from around the world, including guest lessons from directors J.J. Abrams, Spike Lee and Donald Glover.
The free program draws thousands of applicants, which are narrowed down through a rigorous process at the start of the summer.
“It was a lot more intense than I thought it would be,” Ash said. “But it was actually really fun. Parts of it had me create stories or characters in the moment and there was a round of interviews. Two weeks later, they sent me my congratulations letter.”
Through July and August, Ash commuted to the Bronx via Metro-North Railroad every weekday to attend classes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as one of the 30 students in her cohort.
“It was unlike anything I’ve ever done,” she said. “We’re just focusing on filmmaking for the entire day. And it’s really a group of people who all love films, so there’s a lot of enthusiasm from the mentors and the students.”
At the end of August, known as the “Film 101 Period,” students wrote, directed and edited their first short film. This year, students were challenged with creating a story without any dialogue. And while Ash has some experience directing—she was named best student director for her theater work at the Eastern Student Artists Student Guild awards in May—she found running a film shoot to be a different beast entirely.
“It was actually really nerve-wracking,” she said. “Maybe it was because everything had to happen so quickly, but I’m not really sure directing is for me.”
The Haseco Avenue resident recounted the stress of only meeting her actors the day of filming, leaving little time for exploring their characters with them.
“But I’m still happy with what I was able to turn out,” Ash said.
Her 4-minute film, titled “The New Normal,” tells the story of two men coming to terms with having to work together, despite their differing personalities. Its showing at a theater in Brooklyn on Sept. 18 marked the end of her cohort’s first unit in the program.
“We’ve already kicked off the next section of the course. It’s all about dialog and we’ll be doing that for the next couple of months,” Ash said.
As the students are back in high school full-time, they’re only attending the next phase of the program on Saturdays.
“It cycles like that through the years,” Ash explained. “During the school months, we’re only there for one day, but over the summer, we’re there five days a week.”
Ash’s three-year program will end with an international film shoot in 2026, where her cohort will be sent abroad to develop their final project.
According to the organization’s website, fellows have traveled to Mexico, Italy and Germany. “I have no clue where we’ll be going, but I’m excited to travel at all,” she said of her prospective trip.
But before that happens, Ash is looking towards her next challenge: college applications.
“I’m in the thick of it right now,” she said. “My dream school is NYU Tisch, which has a really great film program. And one of our mentors went there and he made it sound really cool. But in general, I’d just like to go to a school with a good film program.”
Ash said that while she may be moving away from directing, she’d like to find a career closer to what drew her to movies: the camera.
“We have a warehouse full of professional-grade equipment,” she said. “And we haven’t really gotten the chance to use most of it. I’m really excited to get my hands on it. I’m learning that I really like cinematography and sound, so I think I’d like to stick to the more technical side of things.”
Comments:
You must login to comment.