Young Movie Makers Receive Red Carpet Welcome at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Katy

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on Mason Rd. was host to a movie special premier and awards night on August 24^th. There was a crowd of over 70 excited fans that began gathering at about 5:00 PM waiting for 13 young movie makers to arrive in their stretch limo at 6:00 PM. Once they arrived they were greeted by flashing cameras and cheers as they walked down the red carpet and into the cinema.

The youths ranged in age from 9 to 14 and were part of a week long movie making camp held at Your Local Computer Store in Katy. They spent the week creating two movies, “Meet My Parents, the Aliens” and “The Gum-ball Robbery.” The youths wrote their own scripts, did their own acting, ran their own cameras and edited their own movies.

The movies premiered in Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s Theatre 5 that night at 6:30. Of course the movie-goers also enjoyed the full menu of food and drinks sold at the cinema. After the movies were shown there was an “Oscar” type awards ceremony for the young thespians. The friends and families that gathered were just as excited as the youths were and several were glad to see such preparation go into an event for young people.

Amber Strickland is owner of Your Local Computer Store and The Core iCafe at the same location. She said, “We’ve held the Movie Making Camp for four years now, but this is the first time we’ve done anything this big to top it off. We really didn’t expect such a great turnout and sense of enthusiasm. It was almost like a real Hollywood premier. The best part was to see the reactions on the kids’ faces. They loved it.”

The camp has been held for four years, but this year Amber partnered with an experienced videographer to help with the class. Buddy Englett of Pyro~Media in Katy joined in and brought a fresh, creative flair to the project, “It’s an honor for me to be a part of something like this. I really love working with students and helping them do what I do. There’s so much enthusiasm and unrestrained creativity in these kids, and it’s fun to help them put it into a finished product and to share it with others,” said Buddy.

This event apparently has spawned such interest that the two administrators have begun a nine month long Movie Making Academy that starts this month. And they are organizing a film festival to take place in Katy in September of 2009. For more information on the classes and the film festival you can visit www.katyfilmfestival.com. With the kind of response that was generated over a week long camp, this could turn out to be something very big for the Katy area.