How CCHS Art Students Collaborate with the Screenland 5k
The Centaur Marching Band performs at the finish line.
The sunny morning of March 1st, thousands of eager Culver City residents gathered at the start line of the annual Screenland 5k. This event was created in 2016 to spread awareness about Culver City’s pivotal impact on the film industry, taking joggers and walkers on a tour of 100 filming areas for iconic movies such as “Ghostbusters”, “21 Jump Street” and even “Legally Blonde”. But, the Screenland 5k also provides a number of opportunities for Culver City High School arts students as well as runners, including an event to showcase music pieces, a stage for AVPA singers, and a blank canvas for art banners.
This year, the Culver City High School marching band was situated a block away from the balloon arch, meaning race participants would pass the musical group at both the start and end of the race. Emily Lamb, an enthusiastic freshman in the trumpet section of the marching band, mentioned that Dr. Spano (the CCHS Band and AVPA music teacher) had said “‘I’m gonna make sure you guys don’t overheat’ so we were standing in the shade!”. As far as preparation goes, Lamb noted that “a couple times in class, we would play stand tunes to make sure we knew what we were doing [...] but that was kind of it! Other than that, it was just bring your music, bring your instrument, and bring yourself!” Overall, she thought that band had a positive impact on people's performance, especially towards the end of the race, where “[she] definitely saw that when [race participants] were coming back, [...] they heard the band they were like yeahhhh¨. Lastly, she spoke very highly of CCHS senior and marching band Drum Major Leo Marcus, who ran the entire race and still made it back in time to help lead the band. “He placed 1st in his division and 5th in the whole race, and then he came over and drum majored,” said Lamb.
Mila Petrella performs "Flowers" from Hadestown.
Another feature in the Culver City 5k was Mila Petrella, a CCHS sophomore in AVPA theatre who starred as Eurydice in the CCHS spring musical Hadestown. Although she was introduced to theatre in the 3rd grade, Petrella noted that she “started getting really into it in 6th grade”. From there, her acting only improved, leading CCHS Theater Director Lee Hanson to invite her to perform at this year’s 5k. When the day finally came, Petrella performed the song “Flowers” from Hadestown, singing the part of Eurydice. Although she already knew the song by heart, she still had to focus on preparing her voice the morning before. “I [woke] up a little earlier than usual, [made] myself some tea, and [did] a short vocal warmup,” said Petrella. While it was nerve wracking leading up to the performance, Petrella mentioned that “as soon as I actually start singing all my nerves go away”. Overall, she decided that performing at the 5k was a really fun experience.
Art by the CCHS Art and Culture class.
While the Screenland 5k offered a number of opportunities for students on the actual day of the race, it also provided students in the Art and Culture class at CCHS with a way to showcase their artwork in the weeks leading up to the actual event. Art and Culture teacher Susana Fattorini says that collaboration between art students and the Screenland 5k began 3 years ago, when she met Mike Cohen, the director of the 5k, purely by coincidence during a Centaur football game. “He was the announcer, I was the yearbook advisor. I asked to make some announcements. He did a quick little interview of me, and that's how we first met. He reached out to me and invited my students to create artwork for the banners that promote the screenland 5k” said Ms. Fattorini. From there, creating banners for the 5k has become an annual tradition for period 1 and 2 Art and Culture students; they are given a theme and encouraged to focus on lesser known characters in the film industry. This year's theme was Vintage, Valor and Velvet, and although they started working on the assignment around November, only around 4 weeks total were dedicated to the artwork as students explored other local opportunities offered to the class such as collaboration with Amazon designers. Once completed, a few pieces of work are chosen from the batch and hung “on Duquesne and Ince [...] in the middle of the walkway in front of City Hall,” says Ms. Fattorini, where they stay the whole month of February. “It's a really big deal for my students. They go with their families and take photos underneath.”
Overall, the Screenland 5k provides ample opportunities for CCHS students. Whether it be a race to run, a sidewalk to play instruments, a stage to sing on, or a place to show off artwork, CCHS students should look forward to this event in the future!