NEWS CHRONICLE PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — From left to right, South Tama County students Jesse Ordaz, Jerome Kapayou, Ryder Shefchik Hill, Ryden Forcht and Alex Babinat have received non-performing all-state honors from the Iowa High School Speech Association (IHSSA) for their short horror film “Beyond This Point,” which was shot in Chelsea. The annual Large Group All-State Festival was held on the campus of Iowa State University last Saturday.

The first time South Tama County (STC) High School Speech Coach Dixie Forcht saw a cut of the short film five of her students filmed inside a shop that was once the Sheda’s Fur Trading plant in Chelsea near her home, she had an admittedly visceral reaction. For one, she watched her son Ryden, who was portraying a police officer, die onscreen, and she also wasn’t sure whether the slasher inspired by classics like “Halloween” and “The Blair Witch Project” was school appropriate, prompting her to check in with Activities Director Chelsea Ahrens for permission.

“I cried. I was upset (when I saw it) because everybody got killed. It was so violent. My brother is a police officer in Texas, so anytime cops get killed, it upsets me. And I cry at commercials. I mean, I’m pathetic,” she said with a laugh. “(Ahrens) was like ‘No, it’s fine,’ so it was just me overreacting, partly because I am close to the kids, like Ryden, but also because I used to like horror more than I do now, but it’s upsetting. And I noticed that in reactions from the audience… the moms get more upset, and everyone else is like ‘Cool!’ I just had to get a second opinion to make sure that I wasn’t overreacting, and I was glad (Ahrens) said ‘No, you’re fine. Let it go.'”

But in the end, the five-minute production titled “Beyond This Point” directed by junior Jesse Ordaz featuring seniors Ryden Forcht, Jerome Kapayou, Ryder Shefchik Hill and Alex Babinat got the green light, and it resonated with judges enough to earn straight ‘I’ ratings at the state large group competition and an all-state designation in the non-performing category.

“I think it just (came about) in a ‘Let’s make a movie and see what happens’ kind of way. Originally, Ryden said ‘Hey, we should make a horror film,’ and I said ‘OK.’ So I pitched up a whole slasher idea. I took a lot of inspiration from a lot of old horror movies, and I said ‘OK, here you go,’ and he’s like ‘Oh, I thought you were making it.’ So then I became the director,” Ordaz said. “I kind of winged it from there, I’m not gonna lie. I took a lot of scenes from a lot of old horror movies.”

Ryden Forcht added that he came up with the idea for a horror film while cleaning out the aforementioned shop, which is about four times the size of his house, and thought it was a “really creepy” spot. It had even attracted a group of self-proclaimed ghostbusters on one occasion in the past.

As he began to work through the creative process, Ordaz decided he wanted a first-person, found footage viewpoint a la “Blair Witch,” the 1999 micro budget independent horror that became a smash hit at the box office, grossing nearly $250 million, and he modeled the slasher — played by Shefchik Hill — after Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees. Forcht found him a mechanical suit to wear, and Ordaz thought it was a perfect fit.

Dixie Forcht and Ordaz sat down for a meeting during which she asked him to storyboard the project, and he laid out his vision and went to work. He later sent her a first draft, and she felt it was already almost ready to present to judges.

“His skill in choosing the shots and the thought process that went in before they started filming was what made the difference,” Dixie Forcht said. “If they had not taken the time — because every time I tell them ‘Make sure you storyboard, then you know what’s coming’ — I don’t always get that work from students, but Jesse’s a true student of film. I was really impressed with that, and these guys are just great actors and they improv well and they know each other, so they just kind of made it naturally all happen on screen.”

Ordaz admitted that he had written an entire script originally but allowed the other actors plenty of latitude to come up with their own lines and do whatever it took to make the dialogue feel as real as possible. In the opening scene where the characters drive up to the site, Babinat recalled looking down at his phone and checking his lines at first before realizing he’d be better served focusing on the road and “rolling with the flow.”

While it’s hard to establish much backstory in just five minutes, Shefchik Hill said his character was probably just “a grouchy old man” who lives in the shop and is sick of rowdy teenage kids wandering inside and damaging his possessions. Ryden Forcht, who is one of his onscreen victims, faced a few struggles in nailing his own death and even landed hard on his elbow during one of the takes.

“I think the best quote I’ve gotten from this is Ryden, after we showed it at state, he was like ‘Thank you so much for killing me,'” Shefchik Hill said.

Although they didn’t show their film during Saturday’s All-State Festival on the Iowa State University campus in Ames, the Trojan quintet still got the chance to walk across the stage and receive medals honoring all of the work they put into “Beyond This Point.” It will also be featured as part of an upcoming film festival at Marshalltown Community College (MCC).

Both Ordaz and Ryden Forcht expressed openness to expanding the project beyond its current five-minute time limit as Forcht said they’ve only used about 20 percent of the shop thus far, and there’s also an old oat factory in Chelsea he felt would lend itself well to the subject matter.

And while speech is often overshadowed by athletics and other activities, all five of the all-state honorees are thankful for the skills they have gained through their participation as all but one of them prepare to graduate from STC in May.

“I think it definitely brought out a lot of my social skills. I don’t think I’d be able to speak my mind a lot if I didn’t do theater or speech,” Shefchik Hill said.

Babinat plans to study theater and business at the University of Northern Iowa in the fall, and he credited the STC speech and theater programs for helping him find his place and decide which direction he wanted to go. Ryden Forcht, who is now a two-time all-stater along with Babinat, joked that he didn’t have a choice about being involved due to the fact that his mother is the speech coach, but he had fun nonetheless.

“I think it made me open up a bit more. I think it’ll help in the future. I’m not as nervous around people. I just do my thing,” he said.

As for the man behind the camera, Ordaz has a host of other story ideas he’d like to pursue in the future, but he plans to stay firmly rooted in the horror genre.

“I do really want to make another film that’s kind of reminiscent of ‘The Exorcist,'” he said.

Another STC short film entry, an animated project, received straight ‘I’ ratings at state but did not earn all-state honors.