(Neal Charnoff) A new movie touring Vermont this summer takes a look at the lives of Vermont teenagers.
(Voices) "I am from a place you don’t know and don’t want to know. I am invisible, walking past you, hidden in your indifference."
(Charnoff) "Shout It Out: The Voices Project Movie", is an adaptation of the 2006 stage musical, The Voices Project.
The story was based on interviews with more than 1000 Vermont teenagers.
Teens were also recruited to compose and perform the music.
"Shout It Out" focuses on issues common to the adolescent experience, including academic pressure, bullying, pregnancy and inattentive parents.
In this scene, a group of students joke about always being on medications.
(Voices) "And what are those for? Anxiety, depression, whatever. Everyone’s on meds. It’s the great depression baby, our great depression. Hunker down in our Prozac nation. Yeah I’m off the meds now. My parents went all hippie-organic on me. Yeah, lately I’ve been thinking about just going cold turkey. I’ve been on like a dozen different things since the fifth grade. I used to take Adarol in seventh grade. Really helped calm me down so I could focus. Thank God!"
(Charnoff) Shout It Out was directed and co-written by Bess O’Brien of Kingdom County Productions.
O’Brien says she was inspired to make the film because the stage production was just too bulky, expensive and impractical to continue touring around the state.
She adds that the huge success of the Disney film "High School Musical" showed there is a market for a movie like "Shout It Out".
(O’Brien) "Why not make a musical in Vermont based on the lives of Vermont teens that is both uplifting and fun and inspiring but also deals with some real issues and some things in kids lives that really get to the core of what kids are dealing with on a daily basis, and so it really seemed like a match."
(Charnoff) "Shout It Out" was filmed entirely in Vermont. Locations included Mount Mansfield Union High School, and the Davis Farm Cow Pasture outside of Jericho.
Director Bess O’ Brien says one of the biggest challenges in making "Shout It Out" was the grueling 26 day schedule.
But she says an advantage of the film version is that it places the characters in their environment…actual homes and general stores were part of the location filming.
The film also gives the actors more time to develop their characters, and allows for additional roles for adults.
Sophia Lapaglia of Burlington was in the original stage production.
She says making the transition to film has been a satisfying challenge.
(Lapaglia) "A stage show is so much about endurance and so much about being in the moment and connecting with an audience and now it’s like you have to make that same connection with a machine, and over and over and over again and completely out of order, and it’s just a lot about patience and understanding and listening to the directors and hot lights in your face and its crazy, it’s a really really different experience."
(Charnoff) Jordan Mitchell Love of Saxons River was also in the stage production. He says the film version of The Voices Project covers a lot of ground on issues important to teens.
(Mitchell) "Not every one kid goes through every single experience that all the characters go through, but everyone has difficulties that they have to overcome, especially during the teenage years, they’re some of the hardest years of your life, and this movie shows that we’re listening, we’re trying to help."
(Charnoff) Director Bess O’ Brien says her goal with the film is the same as it was with the stage production: to encourage parents and teenagers to talk with each other about the challenges of adolescence.
(O’Brien) "What I want this movie to say to people is exactly what the title says, which is Shout it Out, which is that kids need to be able to shout out what they feel, what they need what’s going on in their lives, and adults need to listen."
Note: "Shout It Out-The Voices Project Movie" plays this weekend at Burlington’s Contois Auditorium. The film will be shown around Vermont through the summer and fall.