Students get advice from alumni in Hollywood

It isn’t often that you see a familiar name roll in Hollywood movie credits. But look closely enough, and you’ll catch the name of Columbia Falls native Lindsay Good listed for big-ticket films such as “Eagle Eye” (2008), “Cowboys and Aliens” (2011) and “Date Night” (2012).

The 1996 Columbia Falls High School graduate said she’s always known she wanted to work in movies.

“I decided in the fifth-grade to be a producer,” Good said. “I didn’t know what that was, but I wanted to work in film.”

Good ended up working not as producer but in the art department of major films. As art department coordinator, she acts as a liaison between the art department and all other departments in film production. Part of her job involves ensuring that the construction department receives plans and illustrations for the movie sets.

Good attended film school at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Shortly after, she began work on her first film, “xXx: State of the Union,” as art department assistant. Her performance and networking in that film led her to eventually hold the art department coordinator title in many widely-recognized productions.

Good recently offered her professional insight to Columbia Falls High School students enrolled in an American literature class that created their own films as part of a quarter-long film studies unit. Teacher Alyson Dorr focused on film writing and technique as well as the relationship between literature and the visual form. Student groups selected American short stories to adapt for film and then spent three weeks bringing those ideas to life.

In addition to the inherent value of film study, Dorr said, this class will help students hone visual skills that will be important when they go out into the workforce.

“Presentation is something that we all experience in our workplace,” she said, as well as working with people and being able to visually represent a product.

The class produced several excellent films this year, Dorr said, but one in particular stood out. Based on Ernest Hemingway’s “The Killers,” the film was sent to Good for review.

Dorr and Good attended Columbia Falls High School together. So did mutual friend Hilary Hutcheson of Outside Media in Columbia Falls, who helped coordinate contact between Good and the students.

Good’s resume and detailed critique both impressed and inspired the students, Dorr said. It was especially meaningful for the students “to see someone in Hollywood taking the time to jot them an e-mail and pay attention to the details in the film,” she said.

Both Dorr and Good said that they were impressed by the quality of the students’ work, especially considering their limited budget for the film.

“They worked really hard for me this year,” Dorr said. “I’m proud of them.”

The students were talking about creating another film over the summer, Dorr said. If they do, they’ll be able to incorporate Good’s advice on ways to improve their filmmaking within the confines of a student budget.

Dorr emphasized that it’s becoming increasingly important for students to see the things that Columbia Falls High School alumni are accomplishing — not just locally but in the larger world community.

“So many of my schoolmates are doing amazing things, and no one’s really recognizing that,” Dorr said.

Part of building an increased sense of connectedness between alumni and current students will involve growing the high school’s endowment fund, Dorr said.

The fund will help students enjoy opportunities to reach out and learn in the larger community, she said, and will help students become even more aware of their true potential.

“In Columbia Falls, there’s this great sense of community spirit connected to the high school and Wildcat pride,” Dorr said. “We kind of wanted to reverse that,” and build a strong reciprocal connection between the high school students and successful alumni such as Good.