Stars helping students succeed - 15th March 2023

Hollywood is home to the Academy Awards. And a Los Angeles high school is teaching future filmmakers. The name of the high school is the Roybal Learning Centre. It teaches students filmmaking skills.

The school gives more people a way into Hollywood. This is important. Hollywood needs new and different stories.

For teacher Brittany Hilgers, filmmaking is about stories.

Britanny Hilgers: "We wanna teach them how to tell a story and not just how to write a story. But how to tell a story as a cameraman, how to tell a story as a costume designer. Because that is part of the story, you know, it contributes to it. So, we wanna make sure that the students understand that these, all these jobs are available to them."

Hollywood stars visit the students. They give students new dreams. Now, Ja'saray Juarez wants to be a director.

Ja'saray Juarez: "Before coming to this school, I wanted to be an animator and storyboarder. And I think now, I still want to storyboard and animate, but I would mainly wanna be a director and a scriptwriter now since we're learning a lot about that."

Who you know is important in Hollywood. Student David Flores learned how to network.

David Flores: "This school has taught me networking skills, that's very important. I've learned that it's very important to make connections with other people. And I've also learned lots of the basic film techniques, like how to work a camera, how to work a boom mic."

Many different people live in Los Angeles. But they don’t work in film. Principal Blanca Cruz is changing this.

Blanca Cruz: "Those are the students that many times have been left behind, have not had access to the, the support, these resources, well direct access. And so the partnership is key because they themselves in Hollywood see that there's a need."

Michelle Yeoh won the Best Actress Oscar this year. The actress shared her award with children from her culture. She had a message of hope for them. Their futures are full of possibilities. Her message may be for the students in LA too.