A team of Anthony Wayne High School “theater kids” took home two awards last weekend for a five-minute film shot in and around Monclova Township, Waterville and Whitehouse.
“Two Way Street” was put together for the 48 Hour Film Project between 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 24 and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 26, and debuted Aug. 2 in the Redford Theater in Detroit – where it was nominated for a Best of Screening on Aug. 16 at the Civic Theatre in Farmington, Mich. Elsa Walz, a 2026 graduate, was there to accept two prizes on behalf of her team: Best in Genre – Road Trip Movie, and Best Use of Prop.
“You’ve got to have a good team for this – a team of creative people who are willing to take the initiative,” Elsa said of the film challenge, which is held in cities around the world, including Detroit. “All of us have done theater, but none of us had any film experience. It was a fun thing to do before we all go our separate ways.”
The motivation for taking on the 48 Hour Film Project came from ’26 graduate Maya Geiger, whose father, Bill, offered to pay the entrance fee if Maya could assemble a team.
“I sent it to my friends and didn’t think anyone would take me up on it,” Maya said.
But she quickly had a chorus of “yeses” from fellow ’26 graduates Amelia Cappel, Raleigh DuShane, Griffin Greer, Jace Uresti, Victoria (Tori) Marshall and Elsa, along with seniors Elisa Liemann, Evan Jones and Layla Doyle, and sophomore Lily Greer.
In the six weeks prior to the weekend challenge, Maya read as much as she could, and sent out documents to everyone involved so they wouldn’t waste valuable time on filming days. On July 24, half the team remained at her house while Maya and four others drove to Detroit to pull a slip of paper from a jar. On it were two genres: Sports/Games or Road Film. Being a “bunch of theater kids” with no sports background, Maya said the team quickly chose Road Trip as the theme.
Soon, they were on the road headed back home, with Elsa driving and the rest throwing out ideas for a script that would incorporate three requirements: a character who is a meteorologist named Bart or Barbara Jones, the line “You have to be careful with that,” and an eraser as a prop.
“We were figuring out the plot and what locations we wanted to film in,” Maya said.
Release forms had to be signed for every person and location, so that night, the back-home team headed out to find a gas station that would give permission for the film crew to shoot the next morning. Thankfully, Ridi’s in Whitehouse was willing, and Layla’s father, homebuilder Josh Doyle, gave permission for filming in his Telluride subdivision off Dutch Road.
Still en route home, the team was brainstorming on who could realistically portray a meteorologist; after all, no one ever sees a teenager giving the weather report on TV. Elsa’s mom, Raegan Sawyer, suggested contacting her younger brother, 2010 graduate Keegan Sawyer, who was a communications major at Ohio University, where he worked on air for the college news station.
“He’s an awesome uncle who got dressed up in the middle of the night to read lines on a green screen for his niece and a gaggle of kids,” Raegan said of her brother.
In addition to Keegan playing Bart Jones – a rain-predicting TV weatherman – Elsa and Tori portray newscasters on a television show in the background during the opening scene.
Choosing the lead roles out of so many experienced actors was achieved through a democratic process – a 3 a.m. informal audition and a vote on whose performance was the best, said Evan, who was selected to play Sam.
“This was definitely different from theatrical acting,” said Amelia, who was selected to portray Wendy, the other lead. “I had to be convincing and realistic instead of over the top. I had to act like a real person.”
The opening scene shows Evan exiting a bedroom, shuffling past the TV with the doom-and-gloom forecast of rain and traffic backups, past a closed door where his parents – acted by Elisa and Griffin – are loudly arguing. Getting the shot of Evan walking involved Maya lying on a blanket holding the camera while two others pulled her backwards down the hall.
At Ridi’s two scenes were shot: of Evan coming in to purchase a pocket knife and being told by the unseen cashier that “You have to be careful with that,” and one in which Amelia drops an eraser with a smiley face as she pulls out her credit card. It took more than 90 minutes to film those brief scenes, stopping every time a customer came into the convenience store.
Other scenes are shot while both Evan and Amelia are driving, nearly colliding with one another on the road, past familiar cornfields and barns, and finally at Mary Jane Thurston State Park.
While the filming was underway, using a borrowed boom mic and camera, siblings Lily and Griffin were in the Cappel family home, recording original music. Because Amelia and Griffin are in the band Hit & Run, recording equipment was all set up.
“The coolest part of all is that the music was all original, composed and arranged by Lily and Griffin,” Maya said. “We’re not required to have original music – we could pay to have music from a library – but we have the talented, musically inclined people who were excited to make music for us.”
With filming done on Saturday, the team took turns editing, preparing the title art and last-minute details overnight and into Sunday, barely finishing in time. In the end, “Two Way Street” depicts two different outlooks on a day, and how small actions like a smile or uplifting music can turn that around.
“It shows that you don’t have to see the results of what you’re doing to positively affect people,” Elsa said.
She credits Maya for keeping everyone organized, incorporating everyone’s ideas, and moving forward in a positive way. For Maya, who has not only acted in plays and musicals throughout high school, but also managed junior high performances, doing a film was more of a stretch than she imagined. It’s a lot harder than the amateur videos students make with their phones for high school assignments, she noted.
“I learned that making a movie is less about filming and a lot of behind-the-scenes and overhead. And there’s so much paperwork,” Maya said. “This was only possible because we have a motley crew of talented, awesome and hard-working people.”
This week, the team is saying goodbye to Amelia and Maya, who are both headed to The Ohio State University, where they will room together. Maya plans to major in biology, while Amelia will focus on English and art history. She will also continue with Hit & Run in Columbus, teaming up with 2024 graduate and saxophonist Luke Willis to perform in local venues and parties. Tori will study mortuary science at Bowling Green State University, and Elsa is headed to Marquette University to major in biomedical sciences with a minor in theater.
Next summer, these graduates plan to return home to team up with their fellow theater friends for another 48 Hour Film Project.
“I think it will be even better because we’ll know what we’re getting into,” Maya said.
