MWCC's weekly e-newsletter

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2005

LOCAL INDEPENDENT FILM DIRECTOR VISITS BCT CLASSES

By Kimberly B. Caisse

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is you need money to make a movie,” local independent film director and scriptwriter John Stimpson told students in Associate Professor Marilyn Pennell’s classes Wednesday, Dec. 7.

	John Stimpson answers a question from a BCT student.

Stimpson has learned other lessons along the way to making movies for Moody Street Productions in Waltham. He chose a career in production and screenwriting, skills he could learn on the East Coast, after finding acting wasn’t his calling while living and taking acting classes in Los Angeles. He’s learned that he interacts well with actors on a movie set because he’s been one. He’s figured out how to meld the business aspects with the artistic pursuit of moviemaking. And he broke new ground in the movie industry by recording his latest endeavor, “The Legend of Lucy Keyes,” with high-definition video rather than with film.

Pennell asked Stimpson, a Princeton resident, to speak to her Broadcasting and Telecommunications classes about these experiences and review some interesting technical features in his upcoming movie, which was filmed on Wachusett Mountain and is based on the 1755 disappearance of Lucy Keyes.

A former colleague of Pennell’s at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Amy Lober, was the production coordinator for “Legend of Lucy Keyes.” But it was a short write-up about the movie in a local publication that prompted Pennell to contact Stimpson directly about visiting her classes.

Stimpson showed students the trailer for the movie, which stars Julie Delpy (“Broken Flowers,” “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset” and “The Three Musketeers”) and Justin Theroux (“Mulholland Drive,” “Charlie’s Angels 2” and “Zoolander”), and three scenes that include various moviemaking tricks. In one of the scenes, a fence was used at two different farms in Princeton so viewers would think they were next door to each other.

Stimpson said he wrote the screenplay for the movie after becoming fascinated with the story of Lucy Keyes’ disappearance. He lives on part of the property once owned by the Keyes family.

On April 14, 1755, 4-year-old Lucy followed her sisters to fetch some sand from Wachusett Lake so they could help clean the floors of their home. Lucy never returned from the lake. She vanished in the woods that day, never to be heard from again. (In the movie, Stimpson has Lucy disappear while going blueberry picking with her sister to simplify the plot.)

The villagers looked everywhere for Lucy, to no avail. Her mother, Martha Keyes, spent every evening afterward searching the woods behind their home, calling her daughter’s name. She died in 1786. Many people believe Martha haunts those woods to this day, and her spirit lives in the wind that blows on that side of Wachusett Mountain. “I’ve heard things in the woods,” Stimpson said.

Villagers thought members of the local Nipmuck tribe took Lucy. But another theory is an abutting property owner, Tilly Littlejohn, murdered Lucy after losing a property dispute to her father. Stimpson said he viewed Littlejohn’s “deathbed confession letter” from Cornell University’s online archives, but the letter’s authenticity has been questioned.

Moody Street Productions began soliciting equity investors for the independent film after Stimpson wrote 75 versions of the screenplay, which ended with 84 pages instead of the standard 120. Almost simultaneously, the Moody Street team had to build their cast of actors. “We had to prove we had strong actors, had a viable genre, it was based on a true story and required a reasonable amount of money to earn back,” he explained.

“Making an independent film is a very difficult, expensive and risky proposition,” Stimpson said. This movie has costs $1.5 million. It is currently showing in 15 foreign countries. The production house may be close to securing a cable television deal and a DVD distribution deal in the U.S. A showing is scheduled next week at Warner Brothers in Los Angeles.

Moody Street Productions offers internships to college students, Stimpson said. If they work hard, interns have the opportunity to learn many facets of the moviemaking business.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES LEVEL THE HIGHER EDUCATION PLAYING FIELD

By Daniel M. Asquino

It’s no secret that I strongly believe that education is the great leveler in society. It puts those who pursue it and work hard for it, on equal footing with those who already have their education. The benefits to these people, their families and their communities are great. There’s

	President Asquino

ample evidence that an increasing number of education policy makers are embracing this belief.
But for education to truly level the playing field, we must make it affordable and accessible to all. Community colleges meet these criteria—and have done so for almost 50 years in Massachusetts.

It’s our responsibility, as a community college, to show anyone that if they’re willing to invest their time, effort and intelligence in getting an education, we will do absolutely everything we can to offer them the quality education and support they need to succeed. We are a bridge to baccalaureate degrees, to jobs in the state’s workforce, to training employees to work with new technology and to retraining for many who already have bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Increasingly, we’re a bridge to simply getting to college.
A trend has emerged in education that validates my philosophy that community colleges level the higher education playing field.

More and more, community colleges are asked to become key players in new K-12 public education initiatives aimed at getting more children to go to college, more high-school students through part of their college quicker, or enticing high-school dropouts to give a diploma and college a second chance.
These initiatives build on the services provided by adult-learner programs, including the North Central Massachusetts Education Opportunity Center, which help people improve their lives through education.

Project GO and GEAR UP, programs supported by the federal government and, in the case of GEAR UP, matched by state and local resources, are designed to help area middle and high school students finish school successfully and enroll in college. Project Excel is an early college awareness program, funded by the state Board of Higher Education, for targeted students at middle schools in Fitchburg and Leominster. These programs not only teach kids about college and what it takes to get there, but also show them by taking them on tours of various campuses.

Our dual enrollment program, part of a nationwide initiative embraced by President Bush, is available to qualified juniors and seniors at participating high schools so they can earn college and high school credits while taking courses at MWCC. Middle college programs, offered at several high schools in our service area, bring the college credit courses to the students’ schools or students can enroll in MWCC’s online courses. These programs for high-achievers blend well with our Honors Program, which has 50 participants this year.
Our most recent addition is the national Gateway to College program. Portland Community College, an intermediary of the national Early College High School initiative supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, recently gave MWCC $300,000 to start this important program in our region.

We are partnering with Fitchburg Schools in this initiative. Starting next September, it will give 16- to 21-year-olds who have dropped out of high school a place to return to earn a high school diploma, prepare to take the MCAS exams and begin taking college courses. It will offer the same services to high school students whom guidance counselors identify as being “on the verge” of dropping out.

Helping all these groups see the benefits of college in the same light as college-track students is so important for our communities. Today, 80 percent of jobs require at least two years of post-secondary education, but we fall short of encouraging this many people to reach for that goal. We must reverse this to secure the future of our communities.
Therefore, I believe it’s up to all of us—those who have sweated the final exams, conquered the writer’s block, solved the math equations, analyzed the scientific theories, written the computer programs—to level the education playing field for future generations and those who need to go back to school. With our guidance, they will glimpse the success that their hard work can achieve.

*This article was first published in the “Newsmakers” column in the Sunday, Nov. 27 edition of the Sentinel & Enterprise, Fitchburg.

TICKETS ON SALE FOR MWCC HURRICANE BENEFIT CONCERT

Tickets are on sale now for MWCC’s Hurricane Katrina benefit concert featuring The Ethan Stone Band, Friday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. (Snow date Jan. 14.) Tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for students.

Tickets can be purchased at the Theatre at the Mount Box Office or online at http://www.mwcc.edu/HTML/gmod/tam/stone/ethanStone.html. All proceeds will benefit the

	Ethan Stone in concert. (Photo taken by Dante Parker.)

Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative, a network of 12 community health clinics greatly affected by Hurricane Katrina.

The Ethan Stone Band, based in Athol, plays a variety of rock music. The band’s repertoire covers a wide range of music, from new material by Coldplay, Audioslave, Radiohead, Beck, Ben Folds, Lifehouse, Staind, and more to classic rock by Santana, The Allman Brothers, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and many more, to Ethan Stone’s original tunes. "Too Late," the debut single from Ethan Stone's upcoming "A Different Way" full-length CD, will be released soon to radio. To learn more, visit www.ethanstonemusic.com.

The event is being cosponsored by the Hurricane Relief Committee, the MWCC Alumni Association, C.A.R.S. and the Eagle 99.9.

Contact the Theatre at the Mount Box Office at (978) 630-2403 or Melissa Sargent at (978) 630-9273 for ticket and concert information.

Other MWCC News :

• The MWCC Library will be open for extended hours during the fall semester’s final exam period: Friday, Dec. 9, open until 7 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 11, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 17, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call the Library’s main desk at (978) 630-9125.

• MWCC’s Practical Nursing program will hold its third annual Pinning Ceremony for the Class of 2005 Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 6 p.m. in the Raymond M. LaFontaine Fine Arts Center auditorium. These graduates went through the program at the college’s Orange campus. For more information, contact Kathy Suchocki at ksuchocki@mwcc.mass.edu or call at (978) 630-9544.

• Get your tickets today for the Hurricane Katrina benefit concert featuring The Ethan Stone Band on Friday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. (Snow date Jan. 14.) All proceeds will benefit the Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative, a network of 12 community health clinics greatly affected by Hurricane Katrina. The band’s repertoire covers a wide range of music, from new material from Coldplay, Audioslave, Radiohead, Beck, Ben Folds, Lifehouse, Staind, and more to classic rock from Santana, The Allman Brothers, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and many more. The event is being co-sponsored by the Hurricane Relief Committee, the MWCC Alumni Association, C.A.R.S. and the Eagle 99.9. Tickets, which can be purchased through the Theatre at the Mount Box Office and online at http://www.mwcc.edu/HTML/gmod/tam/stone/ethanStone.html, are $15; $10 for students. For more information, contact the box office at (978) 632-2403 or Melissa Sargent at (978) 630-9273.

• Cataloging and Reference Librarian Jess Mynes recently started his own small press, Fewer & Further Press, with the publication of “Coltsfoot Insularity,” a collaboration between him and poet Aaron Tieger. It is a book-length manuscript published in a run of 150 copies. Mynes is distributing the book himself through mail order and a website that has Pay Pal (http://fewfurpress.blogspot.com/) and with the help of other poets through readings. Fewer & Further Press has four other manuscripts that are currently being designed and should be published in the next few months. For more information, contact Mynes at (978) 630-9195 or jmynes@mwcc.mass.edu.

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