Edutopia - February/March 2008 - (Page 20) Co o l Schools Mash A classroom doubles as a special-effects tech studio, and students go pro. By Sara Bernard Photography by Chris Glass Monster ferocious, drooling beast with menacing fangs and sharp claws looms over a roomful of high school students. They don’t seem to notice. That is probably because the room is crowded with beasts—life-size vampires, zombies, aliens, and other grisly creatures—of the students’ own making. And their classroom, filled with the hum of drills and dryers, drifting clouds of plaster, and low conversations about spilling intestines and blue fur, has the look and feel of a special effects studio. In fact, it is both a classroom and a special effects studio. The Berea High School Visual Effects and Design class, in Berea, Ohio, is a place where students collaborate on masks, props, characters, and sculptures for independent films, trade shows, city spaces, businesses, and private collectors. For two hours a day, for thirty-six rigorous weeks a year, BHSFX students at all grade levels work in teams with a unique set of materials and class requirements (read: silicone, latex, and a syllabus that includes the phrases “eye fabrication” and “hair punching”), to produce work of professional quality—as professionals. “I don’t consider this class an art class,” says teacher and founder Jim Bycznski, who started the program soon after he began teaching thirteen years ago. “It’s far beyond just art.” Bycznski credits Arnold Goldman, owner of the Clevelandbased mask-making shop Monster Makers, for the “Eureka!” moment that led to BHSFX. An article by Goldman in Airbrush Artist Magazine helped Bycznski answer the question, “How can I make art class into something real-world based and exciting for my students?” The answer, he decided, was special effects. “When I proposed the class, there were some who said it’s not an art form, it’s a craft, and they weren’t sure it would stick,” says Bycznski. “But I looked at our curriculum and I A 20 EDUTOPIA FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008
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