Senior Alana Hubbard is directing her debut film entitled Playback. As a head writer for the development of multiple student produced films like What About Me, and The Seven, Hubbard has had a crucial role in Air Academy High School’s film club. Now, at the end of her high school career, Hubbard hopes to leave a lasting legacy on the club with her own creative work. 

With the time constraints due to the upcoming graduation, Hubbard has had a difficult time keeping up with the demands of writing, filming, and editing. The process has had its ups and downs, and the coordination of filming times with actors and crew’s schedules has been the most challenging. 

It’s been a bit chaotic. We’ve been to a bunch of areas in and out of school, and a lot of people’s houses. The schedule was very improvised,” actor Grace Webring said.

The production of the film has been highly time consuming and resource intensive, with participants having to film in the woods behind the school. The film itself, however, is a masterpiece. With close, vibrant shots in nature, juxtaposed with the humanness of the characters, Playback truly puts the art in performing arts. 

“A lot of the process has been scheduling, costuming, and finding settings. We’ve run into a lot of problems with finding where we’re going to film because this movie’s very unique in that we haven’t set it in the school – we set it in outside locations that are also sometimes set in the past,” actor Delaney Brandt explained.  

On where she gets her inspiration from, Hubbard says she usually listens to Spotify. While a unique approach to the creative process, she believes that music, and especially musical soundtracks are the easiest way to find ideas. However, for her newest film, she did something different.

“I kind of was just scrolling on Pinterest one day and I found some fun little songs and prompts, and I was like you know what, I have an idea,” she proclaimed. 

The film’s script is compelling. It differs from past films, and strays from some of the darker subjects that have been touched on in the past, and replaces them with a lighter, more whimsical feel. 

“[It’s] about a girl who learns about her grandmother’s past. When she looks through the cassette, she realizes that the town kind of has a negative view on their lives and she wants to try and change it and try and impact their lives for the better,” Hubbard said. 

Hubbard has been developing this film since the beginning of the year. Copious amounts of time and effort have gone into Playback, but she believes it’s worth it to see it on the big screen. If all goes well, by May 11, her film will be shown at Film Club’s first Movie Premiere, with the rest of the club’s creations, including an audio drama by the name of Dakota, by Will Lamb, and an independent horror film entitled The Seven. 

With the star power of both the leading actors and director, Alana Hubbard, Playback is sure to make the final cut.