WEST ORANGE TIMES & OBSERVER
OrangeObserver.com
JournalismX Reimagining Creativity JOSH MCDONALD, 11
Kay Hill, local Winter Garden resident, is adding another accomplishment to her career. She has made more than 200
TV Shows, documentaries and short films throughout her professional journey in the production industry. Kay Hill is also one of the owners and lead instructors of a local creative experience for kids and teens called Florida Film Academy. She has now made a way for kids outside of our community to learn
about the world of film and visual storytelling. Six Pixel is the franchise of Florida Film Academy’s Make a Movie Program and is a part of the Florida Film Academy Group of Companies. She and her team launched in April 2018 and are targeting like minded people who want to bring creativity and
Tatum Cempella
steam to kids ages 7-13 across the U.S and around the globe. The new franchise allows new owners to offer programming like filmmaking, photography, youtube and stop motion through homeschool programs, summer camps and after school classes. SEE REIMAGINING CREATVITY PAGE 17
THE FUTURE OF THE DELOREAN
Jake Cuomo
How Bruce Coulombe is making the dream of driving in the DeLorean a reality
SARKA RAO, 14
T
T h e 1 9 8 0 ’s c u l t classic film Back to the Future is a movie about a teenager who unintentionally time traveled thirty years into the past in a modified DeLorean, a car made famous by the film. One could say that the biggest star of the film was the time-traveling machine itself, with its multiple buttons,
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THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2018
CREATED BY SHELBY BECK-FLORIDA FILM ACADEMY
Six Pixels, a new creative opportunity for kids ages 7-13
The Future of the DeLorean
LED glow, and wing-like doors. However, what if it were possible to see this car somewhere other than the big screen? Even better, what if it were possible for you to have one? Well, you’re in luck. A man by the name of Bruce Coulombe is one of the few who recreate these cars for theme parks, conventions and private consumer use. Bruce describes himself as a “Pop culture, movie
themed, prop builder… I’m like kind of a master prop maker” As a former engineer contracted by NASA, his inspiration for this career path was actually brought on by tragedy. In 1983, after the Challenger shuttle explosion, Bruce along with many others was laid off due to the pause of the shuttle program. He was contracted by Universal SEE PAGE 16
JournalismX In Review SHELBY BECK, 17
Traditionally in our last issue of the year, I like to reflect and write a year-inreview of Journalism X’s accomplishments throughout the year and this year has been quite a doozy. Many of the current events of the year revolved around teenagers, most especially in this area. Being able to comment on such a wide-reaching platform about the changing of history by students of similar age was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity everyone here is so thankful for. We also got the opportunity to report on the impacts of Hurricane Irma and response relief. Once again, we were able to expand out into our community, reporting about creative minds like visual effects specialist Jon Gress, the craftsmanship of local artisans, comic book creator Peter Smith, Disney costumer director Matthew Davidson, social media extraordinare Kaleigh Merrill, and Delorian creator Bruce Coulombe. We were also fortunate enough to experience the local business sector of Central Florida and are so grateful to Heller Brothers for letting us take an inside look at their business. While this issue marks the last of the year, it also marks the last of JournalismX’s tenure on the West Orange Times and Observer. So, if you’ll bear with me on my trip back to memory lane, I’d like to go back to when this program started 3 years ago. 4 girls walked into a backroom of Florida Film Academy’s Downtown Winter Garden location, wary of what we were signing ourselves up for. We sat with Ms. Stefanie brainstorming just what we wanted our little section of the Times would become. 3 years, 2 more girls, a boy (finally!), and a new little member on SEE JOURNALISMX IN REVIEW PAGE 17
Studios where he helped build the Jurassic Park dinosaurs. It was during his time making the dinosaurs that he walked into the Back to the Future ride. “I happened to walk into the “Back to the Future” ride and saw the car and…just automatically fell in love with the DeLorean Time Machine.” In fact, he loved the DeLorean so much, he wanted to build one himself. So, when he wasn’t working on the Jurassic Park project, he got permission from Universal to work on the car. Since he was working with Universal Studios, he was able to look more closely at their DeLorean to figure out the design and composition. A friend of his owned a DeLorean, so Bruce asked if it was possible to make it into the time machine. Of course, his friend supported this idea. After the project was complete he turned the concept into a rental experience where folks could rent the car out for events. At that point he never considered the fact that this could be his job, so he started selling parts on Ebay. He got requests from people building their own replicas of pop culture items and after receiving many requests, he decided it was time he started his own website where he could better fulfill the orders. However, he soon realized the competition that came with having this kind of business. One of his competitors challenged him by telling people, “Bruce could never build a car because his parts are no good and he doesn’t know how.” This upset
Bruce, but at the same time, it motivated him to keep building these cars and be better than the competition. In 2008, after he was permanently laid off from the space center, to take his mind off of the stress, his friend sent a DeLorean down for Bruce to turn into a time machine. When it was completed, he posted photos and videos online for the world to see and before he knew it, his car went viral. By 2010 he had six DeLoreans contracted to build into time machines and since then he has built 24 DeLoreans. So who can afford to buy DeLorean replicas? Bruce explains that, “I’ve had a heart surgeon to a data manager purchase these time machines from me. There’s no one side of the spectrum that buys these.” He’s even had people take out second mortgages on their homes so that they could use the cars as a side business. Because of Bruce, there are now cars located pretty much everywhere in the US. He states that, “99% of my sales are outside the state of Florida.” Since his business skyrocketed, he’s created a website called Coulombe Enterprises where he shares pictures and videos of these DeLoreans. Bruce is a hardworking man, who is incredibly enthusiastic about what he does. He works at least 14 hours everyday and to date is getting ready for Mega Con here in Orlando the weekend of May 26th. “To date I have done 24 DeLoreans. I have done 1 Ghostbuster Ecto. I have
done 4 Jurassic Park Jeeps, one explorer, 3 Lost in Space robots, some dinosaurs, lots of props for community and school theaters, 1 night rider car, Star Skin Hutch, themed custom robots.” However, at the end of the day, the Delorean will always reign supreme. “The DeLorean by far is the favorite to work on. Mainly because it is so intricate with parts, I mean people like looking at the DeLorean time machine. It’s a giant toy car, but it’s adorned with so many different pieces…” Bruce is extremely dedicated to giving his customers only the best quality cars, which allows him to rise above the rest in his industry.
THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2018
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Career Pioneer TATUM CEMPELLA, 12
Twenty nine year old Kaleigh Merrill wakes up every morning, drives her two kids to school, comes home, starts her coffee, and opens up Facebook. No, she’s not checking in on her favorite celebrity, she is starting her newest Facebook Live stream, because that’s her day job. Soon hundreds upon hundreds of people will join in to watch her do anything from chatting about parenting to intricate make up tutorials. Once the stream ends she might add a post to any of the multiple accounts she has over various social media platforms. Less than a minute later the likes and comments will start to roll in from her thousands of diligent followers. To be exact 358,000 on Facebook and 10,000 on Instagram. These faithful fans “know” Kaleigh even if they’ve only interacted with her from a screen. There’s been bee attacks, product disasters, and even her son asking her to smell his under wear on Facebook live. Surprisingly this kind of lifestyle and fame happened by accident. One day, Kaleigh decided to post a “half serious make up tutorial” on Reddit that ended up going viral, which shocked Kaleigh. To surprise her even more, a company sent her false lashes to review. The review became popular as well, and now more people were starting to notice her talents. Quirky Momma, and Poise and Purpose were just some of those people, and they continue to work with her to this day. With a rapidly growing fan base, Kaleigh decided to make her own accounts, only she needed some reinforcements. She had to learn a few lessons from her teenage sister first, such as how to take a selfie. Not only did Kaleigh not
know what an iPhone was, but her entire job was nonexistent at the time. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up she had always said a writer, little did she know that she would be pioneering through a whole new aspect of the job. 2 years after the start of her journey, Kaleigh Merrill has been one of the people to introduce a brand new profession to the world. She tells us that her profession means, “always working with your job buzzing at you in your pocket”, while doing everything from being a content creator or impacting major companies, to starting a new travel blog. She tells her followers that they can do anything that they’re passionate about, no matter what.
Reimagining Creativity
Making the Impossible Possible
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How Jon Gress uses visual and special effects to trick his audience SHELBY BECK, 17
Jon Gress’ job is to make you see, and believe, the impossible. As a visual effects producer, he works to make the impossible possible both during and post production. Gress specializes in invisible effects; slight changes in actions and backgrounds that the audience is not supposed to notice. Using visual effects, he has the power to blow objects up, show people falling off of buildings, and even change the color of the sky. “Visual effects and special effects have always been created to do things that can’t possibly be created in reality cheaper and safer,” explained Gress. “My favorite part of the job is the ability to create the unreal.” Gress first found his passion for visual and special effects watching Hollywood films when special effects as they’re known today were still in their infancy. “When Star Wars came out and I saw the special effects, I was like, that’s what I want to
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do. I just fell in love with cameras and lights and making movies,” enthused Gress. Now, he’s taken his lifetime of experience to teach up-andcomers in the special and visual effects industry. For the past eight years, he’s mentored students who’ve gone to work on movies like the Avengers, Iron Man, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Recently, Gress began teaching an even younger generation of teenagers at Florida Film Academy. When teaching effects, Gress finds it important to ground students in the basics first before they get wrapped up in the new technology that’s emerged recently in the industry. Using the processes of the pioneer special effects experts, who Gress describes as “stage magicians,” he teaches his students the importance of tricking the eyes themselves rather than programming a computer to do
the illusion for them. “I like to ground everybody in the basics and the ‘original’ effects because, to me, those are the tried and true core. It’s easy to get wrapped up in new technology, new programs, new applications and faster computers. But, at some point, you have to know how it works without all that.” he stated. In the end, Gress finds it important to simply marvel at the intricacy of both the real world and it’s recreation through effects. “[The world] is so detailed, there’s so much there. To be able to recreate that, one person by themselves is just astounding,” reflected Gress. “The ability to just dream something up, dream a land up, dream a world up and be able to actually create it and fly through it and look at it is incredible.”
Hill and her team make sure that the quality aligns with what they are offering locally in the Winter Garden Community, “that our high standards of education is maintained across the franchise. Potential buyers have to go through a rigorous vetting process and experience an intensive training program along with constant guidance from our team,” explains Hill. “You’ll see tons of robotics and lego franchising opportunities to choose from in the educational sector however you won’t see anything quite as unique as Six Pixels” shares Kay Hill. “People often communicate experiences and re-imagine life through the power of storytelling. We have received countless inquiries
Photo Credits: Peter Smith
for something like Six Pixels for a long time.” Hill saw that something like this educational platform didn’t exists and wanted to change that. Hill is extremely passionate about this big step and hopes to inspire the next generation of storytellers all over the world.
JournalismX in Review
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16... the way (yay!) and we are so grateful for the opportunity and voice this paper has given us. We are also excited to start our next chapter as a digital-platform based group on journalismx.com along with social media platforms like Facebook. Finally we’d like to thank everyone who’s stuck with us through this journey and taken the time to read our thoughts and hard work, thank you for letting us share our voice with you. We look forward to the road ahead.