Fishers High School Teens’ Screenplay to be Filmed by Professional Crew

WriterSuzanne Huntzinger
Photography Provided by Fishers High School

They’re ready for the Red Carpet. Fishers High School juniors, Whitney Roberts and Cynthia Foulke were recently named the winners of the 2018 Project Pigasus contest for their screenplay, “As We Begin.” The annual screenwriting competition, presented by Pigasus Horizons Inc., invited students in grades 9-12 across the state of Indiana to create an original short screenplay (less than 12 pages), a short summary and short video about themselves and their films. The contest opened in Fall 2017, and the deadline was January 25, 2018.

As the winners of the contest, Roberts and Foulke get to have their screenplay filmed by a professional film crew. Once the filming is complete, their screenplay will be entered into nationwide film festivals.

“The best award is the privilege of having our script filmed in the first place,” Roberts says. “It’ll make it so real to have a complete film crew there rather than simply using iMovie to create a short film. We’ll get film industry experience working side-by-side with the Pigasus Pictures crew.”

The two best friends fell into the project thanks to Roberts’ mother.

“My mom heard about Project Pigasus on the news, so, she texted me the link to the news video and suggested I give it a try,” Roberts says.

Then Roberts, who is already an aspiring screenwriter, came up with a brilliant idea.

“Knowing that two is better than one, I asked Cynthia, since we have the same English class, to co-write the script with me. I’m good at dialogue since I’ve written scripts before, and Cynthia was a huge help throughout the process, right beside me writing the plot and editing,” Roberts says.

First, the girls had to develop a plot for their screenplay.

“Whitney had a few ideas bouncing around that I may or may not have shot down because they were very cheesy,” Foulke says. “But we discussed what we and our target audience could relate to, decided on our main conflicts, then the characters were developed. Finally, we both wrote separate scenes and edited them.”

The two spent many hours after school at each other’s homes writing scenes, then carefully editing their work. “It took a bit under a month, though looking back it felt like it went faster than that,” Foulke says.

The girls didn’t have to reach far to come up with a plot for their brilliant masterpiece. “As We Begin” is about the relationship between two teens, Jordan and Dakota, about to leave for college and their fear of the distance that comes with this new stage in their lives.

“The main characters, are largely based on us and our friends,” Foulke says. “The humor throughout especially is very similar to ours in many ways.”

Now that their big win is just beginning to sink in, the girls are looking ahead to the future.

“For me, this win means the world, as my dream is to go into the film industry,” Roberts says. “This is an experience of a lifetime as I’m going to be doing this for the rest of my life.”

Foulke is undecided about her specific future plans but no less enthusiastic about the win.

“I am so excited to learn more about all the aspects that go into creating a film,” she says. “Plus, it’s still slightly unreal to be working with Pigasus Pictures, whose movie (“The Good Catholic”) we both have seen and loved.”

Roberts and Foulke are unsure when the filming of “As We Begin” will be complete, but, stay tuned. Visit pigasuspictures.com for updates on when and where you’ll be able to see the girls’ winning entry.

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