The Anderton Family: My Favorite Film Makers/Actors/Directors

So Tyler and Jordan have been taking film classes together at the ALC (Advanced Learning Center) this year. They love it! It is through UVU and are earning college credits as well. Jordan is actually on track to graduate high school with his diploma and Associates Degree at the same time! I hope he keeps it up! They attend Payson High School on A days and then on B days they are bussed from Payson to Springville to attend the ALC. There is only 7 kids in their class. They absolutly love going there and love their teacher, Mr. Arnold. They have learned so much this year and have made some pretty amazing videos and animations. They also get to go on a lot of field trips. They took the Front Runner to Salt Lake and went to a student showing of the Sundance Film Festival at U of U. They even got to do a Q & A with the Director of some of the films afterwards. They really enjoyed that. Tyler really loved that they got to go see Interstellar (his new favorite movie) at the movie theatre when it first came out, during the school day, for a field trip. Mr. Arnold drove them all there in the ALC mini van. They also got to go on a tour of the BYU animation/film department. And got to go to a speach by Ed Catmull, President of Pixar Animation, given at the Marriot Center at BYU. They have got to do all kinds of fun things that really interest them that they would have never had the opportunity to do if we were still living in Idaho. It has sparked so much creativity in them and has really made them become even closer as they share the same interests. The ALC lets them check out fancy cameras, green screens, microphones and all sorts of film making equipment. They have had so much fun. They both entered 3 Film Festivals this year. The first one they entered was the Utah High School Film Festival.

Tyler entered the Animation he made. He made an awesome robot and made him dance like Napolean Dynamite. It was only 30 seconds long and they wanted it to be at least a minute. He put so much detail and time into it that it took him so long just to do that because he wanted it perfect. He was really happy with it and entered it anyway. He recieved "Honorable Mention" for his animation titled, "Sick Dance Video". I think he would have recieved much higher if it would have been longer. But he was still very happy with how his video turned out. He didn't care.

Jordan entered the short film category. He made a futuristic commercial with an akward, used car salesman feel to it. He titled it, "Garr Bith's Used Lightsabers". He won" First Place" in the Comedy division!

The second film festival they entered was The Utah Digital Arts Media Festival. They entered their same videos in all three festivals. This one Tyler received "Best of Show" for his 3D Animation. He won a year subscription for "After Affects", something he has always wanted. Although he won't be able to use it for the full year because he will be leaving on a mission this year. But he was still very excited. And Jordan was too. He can use it when Tyler is gone.

Jordan won "First Place" for his video, and recieved a Cromecast. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it hooks to the back of the TV and then you can watch "You Tube" or other stuff from your phone and project it onto the TV.

The last film festival they entered this school year was The Nebo Film Festival. It was the smallest of the three and just consisted of the five high school's in our District. They had a lot of fun at this one because they knew the kids because a lot of them attend classes at the ALC. It was pretty much the end of the school year party. The ALC teachers made it really fun for the kids. The rented the Spanish Fork Movie Theater and rolled out the red carpet for them. They wanted to rent a limo and asked for $10 donations from the kids, but I guess they didn't get enough. They had all of us stand outside the theater and loaded the kids/directors into the ALC mini vans at the back of the theater. Then Mr. Arnold drove them around to the front of the building where all us "fans" and paparazzi were and let them get out and make their entrance on the red carpet leading into the theater, while we all cheered and took pictures. It was a lot of fun! Tyler won "2nd Place" for his animation here, and "1st Place" for a short movie he and his classmate, Albert made called "Hippie Fries". Albert was the Director, Tyler was the Cinematographer, and Jordan had a small cameo in it.

Jordan won "1st Place" for his short film again and also won the award for "The Best up and Coming Film Maker".

They really have enjoyed their time together at the ALC and were sad to see it come to an end. They said they are going to continue and go up to the ALC this summer.