| Issue #37, December 8, 2006 |
ANTHONY ARFI AND HIS MAGIC MOVIE CAMERA
By David Lion Rattiner
Anthony Arfi is Mr. Moviemaker. The fourteen-year-old Westhampton High School freshman has been making home movies since he was five years old, all just because he loves making them. But he recently was able to make his movie mark by obtaining a $5,000 scholarship from a program started by Tiger Woods called Start Something, which awards talented kids that submit projects based on “what they want to be when they grow up.” Teachers would then nominate you based on your grades to do an action project. Anthony fit the profile and got the highest award the program offers.
“When I heard about the program, I decided to make a movie because I want to be a director when I grow up. A lot of the other kids were interviewing people with professions that they wanted to do. I wanted to show that I could actually do the profession.”
And so, Anthony along with three of his buddies and his little sister put together a very cute, fifteen-minute movie entitled Vacation. He then submitted the movie and crossed his fingers. Lucky for him, he was able to get the top prize of $5,000.
Anthony is a very polite and nice young man whose father owns a local music shop in Westhampton called Powerplay, opened two years ago. Before that, his father made a living DJing and installing audio and video equipment in private homes.
When he was five years old, Anthony’s parents took him to see Jurassic Park. “I thought it was the coolest thing that I ever saw. After I saw it, I immediately went and got some dinosaur action figures and made a short homemade movie with this clunky old video camera. I would make sounds to the movie and it was really amateur. But I made a bunch. Every time I saw a movie I would get the action figures and do this. I made a Star Wars one and a Godzilla one too.”
He is a huge Spielberg fan, and told me that his Jurassic Park, along with Jaws and Indiana Jones, is one of his favorite movies of all time. Maybe he’ll move along in Spielberg’s footsteps?
Anthony is also a musician. He has played the guitar for two years and plays the bass clarinet with the school band, which he has been practicing on since fourth grade.
I got the opportunity to sit with Anthony and watch Vacation in the back of his father’s music studio amongst electronic pianos and drums, and found myself cracking up. The movie is about four college boys that decide that they want to go on vacation, but can’t seem to get it together on their way to the airport. Of course, when they end up at the airport, they show up at Westhampton’s Gabreski Airport to fly off to the beach. I was also amazed at the editing quality of the movie. Where did he learn to do that?
“I learned how to edit from a guy named Frank Cento, who teaches acting classes. When I told him I wanted to direct he showed me how to edit. My Dad is great with lighting and technical stuff, so I learned a lot of that from him. I also learned how to do sound and lighting from an acting group I was in when I was twelve called MPAC.”
Using a digital video camera and editing equipment that he can manipulate on his Apple Computer, Anthony really took the project seriously, and his friends Billy Finn, Mikey Lennon, Brendan Spano and sister Gina Arfi all worked their tails off during the full day of shooting. “We made the movie in a day, but it was a long day.”
From the looks of the movie, you can see Anthony’s directing skills develop and you could also see how much fun both he and his friends were having shooting the film.
What’s next for the young director? Well, making more movies of course. “I just really like making movies. I’m hoping to get one in the Hamptons International Film Festival one day.”
That could very well be in his future. As for now, he’ll keep making movies, and focus on getting through High School.
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