Sierra Mountain Times

When Jackie Grieff walked across the gym and accepted her diploma last Friday night during Summerville High School’s graduation, like most of her fellow students, she walked away with much more than a piece of paper. After three years at Connections Visual and Performing Arts Academy, a fine arts charter school located on the campus, Jackie pursued a path of high academic achievement and developed her interests in the visual and performing art skills, most notably, film. Her time there molded her into one of the top film students in her class and prepared her for a bright and prosperous future in the film industry. And while she may not be walking down the red carpet yet, Jackie walked away from her Summerville career with unforgettable memories, a remarkable resume of awards and achievements and over $37,000 in scholarships. Now on her way to attend the prestigious Art Institute of California-San Francisco in July, Jackie finds herself at the brink of a new adventure as she leaves her Summerville preparation behind and prepares to immerse herself further into the art form that she loves so much. However, her mark on the Academy won’t be forgotten soon, and has become a flourishing example for other aspiring artists on the campus. 

“To really say it simply, our film program would not be what it is with out her,” said Cord Rawlinson, Film Animation and Art Instructor at the Academy.” She really exemplifies the perfect film student and it was an honor to have her in my class. Not only did she achieve a lot of personal success, but she also really inspired all of my students because they see her work and see what’s possible, and it motivates them. She’s really left behind a legacy of people that are excited about film who will keep raising the bar and keep the program growing.”

Jackie’s excitement for film started at a very young age. Like most children, Jackie always enjoyed watching movies…but unlike most children at that age, she knew that she grew up, she wanted to be a film director. 

“My two oldest boys Jeddy (32) and Timmy (31) were wild Texas teenagers, and they had no idea what they wanted to do…but Jackie, on the other hand, has known since she was about 4-years-old that she wanted to be a film director,” said Jackie’s mother, Michele. “She started by watching movies over and over, until she memorized them. She would buy DVDs, and watch the “making of” parts to learn all that she needed to know.”

Jackie, who grew up in Houston, Texas, looks back fondly on those times. 

“I have just always liked movies!” said Jackie, 18. “I would watch the same movie over and over all day and drive my parents absolutely crazy. I loved them so much.”

This love for film sparked an interest in art classes, which she began to take as she got older. In 2000, Jackie and her mom moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Jackie was home schooled for three years, allowing her to have more time to focus on these arts.

“Because she wanted to do art so badly, I decided to home school her,” said Michele. “That way, she would have time for all the art classes she wanted to take.”

These classes, which were taken at the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs, included pot-throwing (to get her hands in the art), animation (to learn that part of film), studio art and other drawing classes (so she could learn to make proper storyboards), photography and darkroom techniques (to learn how to handle film and frame subjects), and digital photography. By volunteering for two summers at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo she was able to develop her photography skills and took over 2,000 photographs during her lunch breaks! Also during this time, Jackie became interested in the Japanese art style of Anime and Manga, and traveled to Japan for a while where she learned to speak some of the language. 

While immensely enjoying these classes and her travels, some of her most memorable times were spent with her brother Jed who came out from Texas and put on an Art of Film class as part of her home schooling. 

“As a comic book artist for Spec Productions, he saw her interest,” said Michele. “They spent many days and nights watching all the classics so that Jackie would have that background.”

“My brother really got me into film because we’d watch all sorts of movies together and then talk about what they did well,” recalled Jackie. “The genre doesn’t matter too much to me as long as it’s edited well.”

Most of Jackie’s favorite films were produced in the 80s. 

“I love old films,” she said. “The quality in the 80s films is better and the stories are more meaningful. Lately you get all these slapstick films of stupid guys running into walls with helmets on. I kind of want something more.” 

As with most movie buffs, pinpointing a favorite film was difficult for Jackie to do.

“Oh jeez,” she sighed. “I like some unknown ones as well as the really popular ones. I like this one film called Cube, which almost no one has heard about. It’s like one of the lowest budget movies ever made…but it focuses a lot on character and story instead of high production values. I really like it. And then of course I like things like the Matrix, Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future.”

Of course Jackie looks far past the colors on the screen when watching a movie and focuses more on the angles, lighting and editing of the films. By Jackie’s freshman year, it was obvious that film was something she was determined to direct her focus on.

“When she decided to go into film for sure – and when she decides, that’s it – I agreed to move to California so that she could go to the California film schools,” said Michele. “Jackie has known what she wanted to do since she was 4-years-old. How can you fight that? So we decided on The Connections Academy because they offered film, had an emphasis in art, and were in a great community. I can’t say enough about the school. What a wonderful environment we found at Summerville!”

After enrolling at the school in 2006 for her sophomore year, this environment soon became like a second home to Jackie.

“I enjoyed it so much!” said Jackie. “I liked that I could take so many arts classes. It wasn’t like I had to take a bunch of academic classes and only get one art class every two days. I had art every day! It was great!”

It was here where she met Film Animation and Art Instructor, Cord Rawlinson, and a bond was quickly formed.

“She was enrolled in the very first film class I taught, and immediately it was clear that she was a very gifted film student and very serious about her work,” said Cord. “She has a dedication and focus and an incredible ability to be able to sustain a vision, which is really what film making is about because you have to stay focused for a long amount of time. You have to be able to plan your story and create a meaningful story – which is not easy – and see it through to the end through all the phases of production.”

It was while in this class that everything Jackie loved about film began to click.

“I didn’t really put together everything I liked about filming until I got into the class and realized how much fun I was having,” she said. “It was just like, ’Oh, my life makes sense now.’”

Once her foot was in the door, there was no turning back, and Jackie immersed herself in the world of film.

“I learned all the basics of Final Cut Pro and then just from editing a lot I kind of learned more of what I could do with it and everything that is possible,” she said. “And I would go up and ask Cord, ‘Is it possible to do this?’…and sometimes he’d say, ‘I don’t know, lets try and figure it out.’ He’s way more focused on the animation because that’s what he is really amazing at and he’s making his own animated film. Filming is a newer art to him than animation is, so we were kind of figuring it out together, which made it fun.”

Jackie’s fun seemed to revolve around film, and she would often find herself spending countless hours before and after school working on her films.

“I can testify that she was never at home,” said Michele. ”Every vacation from school, she stayed in the film lab. We’d arrive early, and the grounds-keeper would let her into the lab. Even the last week of school, when they had short days, she was there early and staying late to finish the two versions of Oklahoma! She only wants to work on her films, nothing else.”

“I’ve had some 13 hour school days just cause I got stuck there editing,” admitted Jackie. “But I enjoy it.” 

Here first experience with editing came with the film class’s major project: creating an original film. Jackie’s first film for the class was titled, Stalker.

“My first film ever was horrible,” laughed Jackie. “I thought it was so cool at first, but then after taking some college courses, I came back and was like, ‘Wow, this is awful.’ I made the simplest story ever because we learned all the different types of shots like a medium shot and a wide shot and so I made a simple story so I could try out all these different shots. It was really more of a camera test than a movie.”

Although her film teacher says that Jackie doesn’t give herself the credit she deserves.

“It’s kind of funny now because she doesn’t even want to watch it, so it’s pretty entertaining to bring it up to her,” said Cord of Stalker. “But her first film was of course very strong.”

In fact during the Connections Academy’s first Film Festival and Awards Night, Jackie won an ‘Academy Award’ for Best Silent Film and Best Editor. She also used the film to get accepted to the USC summer film program (the George Lucas school of film) where she completed 8 college credits.

“This is like the most prestigious film summer program for high school students there is,” said Cord, a Graduate of the Cal Arts Film and Animation program. “It’s a huge success to get there as a sophomore, and she did really well there.”

The six-week course in beginning filmmaking continued to open Jackie’s eyes to the world of film.

“That program was absolutely amazing! “she said. “It was crazy fun! They really know what they are doing. After USC I got way better really fast, and I stepped it up and had a much better film the next year.”

Her junior year offering was called Scarf, which won Best Live Action Film, Best Editor, and Best Director at the 2nd Film Festival and Awards Night. During the making of this seven-minute film, Jackie began to get more creative with her directing.

“This movie was about putting on a scarf that allowed you to teleport wherever you wanted,” she explained. “I decided to film it off campus because teleporting to different parts of the school would be really lame.”

While she expanded her filming territory, she also expanded the school’s extracurricular options by forming the Film Club, which she established because “there wasn’t enough to do.” 

“I wanted to do more,” she laughed. “Because film is a new program and it is kind of getting its feet wet, we didn’t have too many film projects. Basically you have the whole year to make a film and kind of do whatever you want with it, so after I finished my film, I wanted to do other things. Once the club was formed I would get a lot of other nerds with me and we’d go film the school plays and the cardboard car races for Mr. Hohn. I was in the editing room after hours all the time so hopefully they will have someone there to edit everything now that I am gone. Autumn Harrison, the star of all my films (and who has won Best Actress in Jackie’s last two films), is vice president so hopefully she’ll take the reins. Plus there are a few other film dorks that will probably keep it going.”

Mr. Rawlinson has no doubt that the other film students will continue running the club.

“It’s really a cool club and a very successful one too,” said Cord. “It will definitely continue because she has really inspired a lot of individuals, and also created a place where they want to continue what’s being created.”

After Jackie’s junior year she continued her education in film. Thanks to the help of Scarf, she won the Innersparks Award, the highest artistic art award in the state of California for high school students, and was able to attend a four-week Innerspark film program at CalArts where she earned three more college credits.

“They only take like 500 students from all over the state,” said Cord. “It’s quite an achievement.”

However, the following year, Jackie’s senior year film would top the bill, winning her an award that most art students could only dream of.

The film, titled Serenity, also fared well with the school awards and on Friday May 1st, during the 3rd Annual Film Festival and Awards Night, it was voted Best Film, Best Live Action, Best Director and Best Editor.

“All of my films at Summerville seem to only have one word titles…and they all start with ‘S’, she laughed. “It’s very strange, but it just kind of happened.”

And although each of these films is unique, Serenity proved to be her most creative work yet.

“I tried to make the story a little deeper than usual,” said Jackie. “Its about this girl who keeps retreating to this place in her mind, which is a boat in a pond, and goes there to relax and get away from everything. But then her mind sends her messages on pieces of paper to remind her to do certain things…and so the film flashes back and forth between the boat and the real world.” 

“It’s a very cerebral film,” said Cord. “There is a lot you can take away from it as a viewer. It’s a really challenging medium because you want to tell a story that grabs your audience one that takes people somewhere. What I really enjoy seeing in this film is her unique creativity. Her stories have her own thumbprint – its her signature and its her vision which I think is very unique and refreshing and she always takes me to a place that I’ve really always wanted to go with her stories. Essentially, this particular story deals with responsibility – your responsibility to yourself, to your family, to choices you make that affect your future, and it’s told in a very abstract way, which I really enjoyed.”

And although the film is only six minutes long, it took a lot of work to write and get the perfect shots for the award winning film.

“I worked the first full semester trying to get my story straight so when I went out to film it I wasn’t worried if the story would read right,” said Jackie. “I could just concentrate on getting good shots.” 

Cord was particularly pleased with Jackie’s shots and her editing ability.

“The transitions in the film were done beautifully,” he said. “She had just great camerawork and her shots are so unique. It was just spectacular how she did some of the sequences! There are these amazing shots where Jackie actually climbed up in a tree to film. At one point in the film the main character ends up getting hit by a car – again, one of my favorite transitions – which is one of the reasons why she won best editing and best film and all the awards. Right as the actor is rolling off the hood of the car, bam, she falls back into the boat and its just this seamless edit to her in the boat rocking in the water. The work she had to do to get the shots in the boat was just amazing. They are really unique shots…and so steady! I just can’t say enough about what she puts into her films.”

Each of her films goes through the same process from pre-production to production.

“I just start with a treatment where I splotch all my ideas on a piece of paper,” she explained. “It is the storyboards that really help me out. If I end up not being able to storyboard it, I can’t film it. If the storyboards work…then the film will work. I think that the story is one of the most important parts, and that is one of the reasons I enjoy film so much. No matter how simple they are, people tell stories everyday. Stories are something that have always been around and always will be around and it an amazing art form to be able to tell a story through film.”

However, because Jackie’s films are silent (her senior project documentary excluded), she has to rely heavily on her directing and the actors expressions to tell the story.

“The script is kind of inconsequential because I do all silent films,” she said. “There is no dialogue.”

By taking this approach, she believes that this will make her a better director. 

“My student films are silent because according to my USC professor, ‘dialogues are Band-Aids,’ Jackie explained. “It’s the show-don’t-tell of writing kind of thing. It just helps you make better films as a student filmmaker. As my films get longer I am sure my films will have dialogue.”

For Jackie’s senior project, a documentary of Hair at Home Salon in Tuolumne, she of course had to break this rule. 

“The owner is a good friend of mine and I filmed a long interview and edited it together with her cutting people’s hair,” said Jackie. “It turned out pretty well and it is scheduled to be shown on Channel 8 sometime soon.”

Although filming and directing is her passion, Jackie isn’t always found behind a camera.

“I have been in big parts in my friends’ films, but I’ve never been in my own films because then I can’t work the camera,” she said. “But acting is really fun. I just started getting into it my senior year.”

This year she played Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! (Which she also filmed, along with Anne Frank and Me and West Side Story) and Stanley Bumiller, a murderous Texas teenager in Greater Tuna, where the guys played the girls, the girls played the guys.

“I was an old fart in Oklahoma! and a conniving murderer in our last play,” she said. “That was really fun. I see what people mean when they say that they like to play the bad guys.”

Jackie also was the stage manager or assistant director for many school shows and helped out a few times at Sierra Reparatory Theatre and Black Bart Theatre.

“I ran lights for Van Gordon, Summerville’s Advanced Drama Teacher, for a show at Black Bart Theatre called Unforgettable,” said Jackie. “That was a lot of fun. As I get more knowledge of who the directors are in the films I watch, I am sure I will have someone I admire, but the only director I admire right now is Van. I learn so much from him by just being in his shows, working shows with him, running lights and just watching him direct.”

Coming a close second to film is Jackie’s love for singing. During her high school career she sang in the concert choir, Jazz @ 8, and show choir. Jackie was also an active member of the Ecology Club and Stream Team, Treasurer and lifetime member of the California Scholarship Federation, and a Member of S-Club (Scholarship Club). Due to her excellent grades, involvement in clubs and in the community, Jackie received many awards this year including: 2009 Bank of America Achievement Award in the field of Music, Jazz @ 8 Student of the Year, Academy Film Student of the Year, Stage Craft Student of the Year, Union Democrat Student of the Month, and Bear of the Month.

Jackie also managed to tally up a nice amount of scholarships to help her continue her filmmaking dream at a college level. These included: The Henrietta Ronten Memorial Scholarship for Music ($250), the California Scholarship Federation Lifetime Membership Award ($100), the Barbara Noble Scholarship for Technical Theatre ($300), the Summerville High Service Awards Scholarship ($100), and the Martha Barnes Memorial Scholarship ($10,000).

“The Martha Barnes scholarship is for women going into a nontraditional field of study,” explained Jackie. “I thought I could win…because not many girls are movie directors.” 

Yet Jackie’s biggest scholarship came from the school that she will soon be attending: The Art Institute (Ai) of California-San Francisco. Thanks to her film, Serenity, Jackie received a $25,000 film award from the college, creating a grand total of $35,750!

“I entered the film, my resume and a photo copy of all my storyboards and that got me the scholarship!” said Jackie. “They don’t get too many applicants because not many high school students out there have the ability to make a film in high school. So most applicants for the award don’t have much to offer except, ‘I watch movies, I like film.’ But Summerville is different because I actually had a film I could submit! The people there said that I had a really good chance of getting it, but I was thinking that they probably say that to everyone…so I was trying not to keep my hopes up.”

Now, with the scholarship secured, Jackie’s hopes couldn’t be much higher.

“Without it, I would have so many loans that I would never be able to pay off,” she said. “Even with the scholarship I still have to get loans! The college costs about $45,000 a year so I will still have to take out loans, and next year it will be even crazier because I won’t be able to get some of the grants next year.”

However, Jackie and her mom came up with a creative idea to try to raise money for the rest of the funds.

“She has offered her services on eBay for a walk-on or cameo in one of her future films for someone who is willing to help pay for college,” said Michele. “I think it’s a creative way to raise college money in a difficult financial time.”

With the amount of Academy Awards Jackie has held in the past three years, it might be worth giving this link a look: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270397409334%23ht_500wt_1150. With the guidance and direction from the Art Institute, it may only be a matter of time before Jackie’s name is on the big screen!

But until then, Jackie is just excited for the adventure that lies ahead of her.

“It feels great to be out of high school,” said Jackie. “The Art Institute is a year round school and I will be starting on July 13th. I am happy it is starting soon because if I had the whole summer doing nothing, I would lose my mind! I am just ready to get going and I am excited about how my schedule will be. It will look something like: ten different film classes and then math…ten different film classes and then English. It will be like the reverse of what I have now…I am so happy! It’s all focused on what I want to do!”

Continuing from where she left her high school career, Jackie will be majoring in Digital Film and Video Production.

“I just hope to be a director one day,” said Jackie. “I understand my chances of that are kind of low…so I wouldn’t say no to an editing job.” 

Whether directing or editing, those who know Jackie well have confidence that her future lies in film.

“There is no doubt she will continue doing what she loves,” said Cord. “I am really confident that we will be seeing her name on the screen either as a director, editor, writer, or camera person… Whatever it is, I am sure she will find a career in film.”

“I have never known a person more dedicated to what she wanted to do,” said Michele. “She knows what she wants, works harder than anyone I’ve ever known, and I have no doubt that wherever she goes, and whatever she does, she will succeed. Success to Jackie us not being famous – success is being able to make films! Just being able to have the time, equipment, environment and actors to make films – that’s all she wants!”

And while Jackie is directed in a new direction, bringing her enthusiasm for film to a new environment, there is no denying that Connections Visual and Performing Arts Academy will miss all the talent and joy that she brought to the program.

“Jackie has a beautiful voice, possesses wonderful acting abilities, a lovely spirit, and was able to sustain a vision throughout her film projects,” said Michael Gibson, principal of the Academy. “I will miss her…Art Institute’s gain and our loss.” 

Best of luck Jackie!