New Youth-Oriented Filmmaking Program Makes a Summer Smash

Red Echo Group, Inc., a local non-profit organization, has kicked off its new young filmmakers program called “Let’s Make a Movie.” This program takes under privileged youth between the ages of twelve and sixteen through the entire moviemaking process – from script to screen. The young filmmakers write, act, direct, design, and even make their own props and costumes. “Let’s Make a Movie” completed six productions this summer at five locations in the Kansas City urban core.

Many KC program directors are asking, “Why hasn’t this been done before?” “The answer is simple,” says Red Echo Group Creative Director, David Huffman. “Digital technology has made moviemaking much more compact and affordable than ever imagined. This is what makes the ‘Let’s Make a Movie’ program so accessible.”

Still, at the heart of “Let’s Make a Move,” there is more to this innovative program than cutting edge technology and cost-effectiveness. “The benefits are two-fold,” explains Jeremy Chrysler, Red Echo Group’s Board Chair. “We are teaching useful technical skills, such as how to light a scene or capture the best sound possible, while fostering arts awareness, creativity, literacy and self-confidence. It’s an amazing process to watch.”

“The ‘Let’s Make a Movie’ program is a fantastic opportunity for the children in Kansas City’s urban core to develop leadership and creative skills that create a barrier to negative peer pressure,” writes Andrew Ellenberg, Marketing Executive at Entercom Broadcasting and Red Echo Group Board Member. “There is no question in my mind that ‘Let’s Make a Movie’ will have a tremendous impact.”

What are Red Echo Group’s future plans? CEO, Eric Keith says, “Through the help of organizations like the Local Investment Commission [LINC], we plan to expand our program’s reach to as many urban school as possible, as well as reaching out into the surrounding Metro Communities.”

For more information on Red Echo Group and “Let’s Make a Movie,” visit http://www.filmsforyouth.org or http://www.redechogroup.org.