From New York to Los Angeles, Shawn Northrip has been a screenplay writer for years before he was a the theater and film teacher at Meridian High School. Mr. Northrip, recently shared some information on the disappearance of IB Film Studies in the past few years and his personal experiences in the film industry.
As of next year, the IB Film Studies class will not be an option for students hoping to take a class with Mr. Northrip. The class that replaced IB Film Studies is now Technical Theater, and Northrip claims that he’s happy about the adjustment.
“My life is significantly easier without IB Film,” Northrip says. “It was a very hard course to teach… I didn’t enjoy having to tell 32 students to turn in their essays, especially when the essays killed the class, which was supposed to be fun.”
While IB Film Studies has been discontinued, the school still offers the regular Film Studies I & II courses.
The structure of the IB class was set up so that students would watch a film, then write an essay, watch another film, and then actually create their film. On the other hand, the Film Studies I & II classes watch a film and then create a film, repeating that process throughout the course of the year.
Mr. Northrip said that the IB Film removal wasn’t that a bad thing. The class that took its place is technical theater. “The tragic disappearance of IB Film wasn’t really tragic at all” Northrip exclaimed, “I actually love tech theater and the students in it.”
Northrip grew up in Virginia, and he found his love for theater in the fourth grade when he was helping out his brother in a community theater. “I saw the light board for the first time and I thought ‘I want to learn how to use this machine,’” he said.
Originally, he was interested in technical theater, but eventually become more interested in the writing aspect, which he came to love even more. Eventually, Northrip’s friend who become a filmmaker called him, asking if he could produce a movie called Waiting for Something.
“I thought, ‘if I could produce a play, how hard could it be to produce a movie?’” Northrip admitted. “Turns out they’re not the same skill set.”
In his writing career, he worked for a manager in Los Angeles who represented directors – there were times when he was “lucky enough” to read over scripts that were sent in, and he would give feedback. He stayed friends with two writers whom he worked with after his job; the three would converse back and forth, giving each other feedback on their scripts.
Throughout his career, Mr. Northrip never stopped telling a story. As a student who is interested in filmmaking and film classes at Meridian, there is no one better to talk to than him – it’s clear that he doesn’t want to discourage students from what he’s passionate about.
“Your life is what you make of it,” Mr. Northrip concluded.
