Frame of Mind: Garland High and Walley Films

Do you ever feel the need to adorn buildings with gargantuan balloons? Or wonder what ’40s film noir might look like in modern-day Garland, TX? Do you mull over the possibility of a rebellion against the tyranny of our technology? If these notions excite your imagination, join us this week on “Frame of Mind.”

“Frame of Mind” airs Thursdays at 10 pm

Reel Owl Cinema…

This four-year international baccalaureate filmmaking program housed in Garland High and run by Thomas Schubert. He and his mother started this program back in 2004. It was the first International Baccalaureate film program in Texas. Schubert says the curriculum is a rigorous four-year immersion in learning how to tell compelling stories.

“We really focus on storytelling,” says Schubert. “Our kids are filmmakers first, definitely, but second, they are storytellers.”

Students begin with the basics of filmmaking and film history in their freshman year, and end their senior year having made somewhere between 16 to 18 films and networked with people who work in the film industry. According to Garland High’s stats, roughly 36 percent of the program’s graduates work in the film industry or study it in college. The films below are some of the best from the program so far.

Pop

Pop sits and waits, lost in thought.

Director: Matt Keith

Plot: this film deals with dementia and the struggle to care for ailing family members.

Wired

The main character trying to get her sister’s attention.

Directors: Kristina Armitage, Kendall Ludlow

Plot: It’s time to cut the cord and be free!

Shadow of a Killer

The soul-liquefying stare of the killer.

Directors: Joe Britain and Ian Grubbs

Plot: A killer is on the loose. It’ll take every ounce of moxie the hero has to catch this crook.

Love Sick

Lovers wooing as lovers do.

Director: Katie Yeager

Plot: Can the nice guy earn a fair lady’s favor over a muscle-bound love hound?

Love Unscripted

Animated conversations in the local coffee shop.

Director: Lacie Block

Plot: How does one go about writing a non-cheesy love story? Who knows? Let’s talk about it!

What You Want to Be

Animated still of the narrator and her father.

Director: Nicha Meyers

Plot: A young woman mulls over what it means to find her calling.

Brushed

Dip, paint, rinse, repeat.

Director: Kristina Armitage, Audrey Ngo

Plot: Things change for the main character, but her brushes are always close by.

Best of Me

Mother and daughter in the hospital.

Director: Audrey Ngo, Francisco Martinez

Plot: If you had precious little time to live, could you reflect on your life and say that you gave the world the best of you?

Walley Films

Mark and Angela Walley are a husband-wife filmmaking powerhouse. They are known for their documentaries about artists. Beautifully shot and genuinely intriguing, these short and sweet films are bound to enrapture you.