A Teen Flick... Made by Teens Article by Robert Loerzel December 12, 2002 pioneerlocal.com The alternately fun and turbulent lives of teenagers are a favorite topic for Hollywood filmmakers. But have you ever seen a teen movie that was actually filmed by teens? If not, Friday night is your chance to see the big-screen debut of “The Leslie Situation,” a feature-length movie shot by a team of Fremd High School students. Based on a screenplay by Palatine resident David Grelck, “The Leslie Situation” will be shown at Cutting Hall in Palatine. Grelck, 23, started writing the screenplay when he was a student at Fremd. Then he set the script aside, studied film at Columbia College in Chicago, spent a semester in Los Angeles learning about the film industry and came back to Palatine, still striving to become a professional filmmaker. While Grelck hasn’t received any calls from major studios offering big-budget picture deals, he did receive an e-mail from Fremd senior Mike Noens. Grelck had dated Noens’ sister, so Noens knew about the screenplay. Grelck agreed to let Noens and his friends make the movie. And to his surprise, they did it. “I was so impressed when four high-school students finished making a feature film,” Grelck said, noting that many college film students haven’t accomplished as much. Noens said he and three friends — Steve Coulter, Derrick Greene and Nick Mikula — began making movies with video cameras five years ago, when they were at Plum Grove Junior High in Palatine. They call their “studio” CNGM Pictures, coming up with the name by combining their last initials. After making a 15-minute video titled “Keep it Simple” and the hour-long “Zero Conspiracy,” the young filmmakers decided they wanted to try making a full-length movie. “The Leslie Situation” approaches the subject of dating in high school from a somewhat surreal perspective. Noens said the film is about a student named Crawford Briggs (Karl Pichotta), who is “a pretty average student.” He’s in love with a girl at his school, but Leslie (Natalie Harden) seems too good for an average guy like Crawford. “Everyone’s telling him, ‘Don’t go for it. She’s way of out of your league,’ ” Noens said. “But he goes for it anyway.” Leslie agrees to go out with Crawford, but she is using him as a way of taunting her real boyfriend. Meanwhile, someone is mysteriously posting information at the school about the status of various student relationships. These dating ups and downs are presented in the form of a stock market ticker. “It’s a mystery,” Noens said. “No one knows how it works.” “I was going for capturing the very surreal nature of relationships in high school,” Grelck said. “People can follow the stock ticker. The school is omnipresent. The school knows when a relationship is up and down.” The movie includes scenes filmed along the lockers in the hallways at Palatine Village Hall — left over from the days when that building was Palatine High School. Noens is the production manager for movie; Mikula, the director; and Coulter, executive producer and director of photography. When they first made films, they were interested in exactly the kind of movies you'd expect junior-high boys to like. “I had the typical guy thing,” Noens said. “I wanted to make action movies with cheesy dialogue — because it’s fun.” Noens said his interests have changed, and now he wants to make dialogue-driven dramas. CNGM Pictures has also progressed technologically. The group used to edit its video at AT&T Broadband’s public-access studios, but Noens said “The Leslie Situation” was filmed on High-8 digital video and edited on an Imac computer, resulting in higher-quality picture and sound. Although “American Pie” and other teen-oriented movies have been box-office hits in the last few years, Noens said he and his video-camera-wielding cohorts were more inspired by the 1980s teen movies of John Hughes, such as “Ferris Buehler’s Day Off.” “The ’80s teen films are the most true to how life is in high school,” he said. “The movies today always take place in L.A., and everyone is rich. They’re not very realistic.” Grelck said he was impressed by the acting in “The Leslie Situation,” which features students from Fremd’s theater classes. “They really got the material,” he said. “All the actors knew exactly what they were doing.” Noens said CNGM Pictures plans to sell “The Leslie Situation” on DVD, as well as soundtrack CDs featuring musicians Ryan Ohm, Marc Muszynski, Blame Twilight and Elenie Dimoulis. The cast of “The Leslie Situation” also includes Gwen Kmiec, Nick Harden, Ryan Ohm, Jamie Doppelt, Caitlin Barlow and Amy Coulter. “The Leslie Situation” will be shown at 8 p.m. Friday at Cutting Hall, 150 E. Wood St., Palatine. Tickets are $5. CNGM Pictures also produces a television show called “Movie Talk,” shown at 9 p.m. Mondays on AT&T Broadband Channel 19. The episode airing this month includes scenes from “The Leslie Situation.” See www.cngmpictures.com for details. << Go Back to Press