Filmmaking Program Focuses on Keeping Youths Out of Trouble

With dreams of becoming the next Steven Spielberg or Kevin Costner, nearly 100 Conejo Valley teen-agers have signed up for a new film program aimed at keeping them away from gangs and drugs.

Film-industry veterans Clifford and Carol Lynn Wenger have developed a special training program for disadvantaged teens in an effort to transform them into skilled movie makers.

“The program will give the kids something to do, something to keep them out of trouble,” said Carol Wenger, who has worked as a film industry art director since 1979.

“They’ll also learn a trade that will help them get jobs in the movie business,” she said.

The program, called Adolescent Creative Transitional Training, or ACTT, is designed to give the students hands-on film experience by teaching them how to direct, produce, edit and even star in movie projects.

“It’s a gimmick. Everybody is intrigued by filmmaking,” said Clifford Wenger, a special-effects expert whose film credits include “Cannonball Run,” “Naked Gun” and “The Golden Child.”

“But it works,” he said.

He compares the program to a surrogate family for teen-agers who come from dysfunctional families. “Some of them will go into the business and some won’t, but they’ll all learn something from the experience.”

Carol Wenger said she has received 150 applications, mostly from the Thousand Oaks area, but some from as far away as Louisiana and England. “I don’t know how they’re finding out about us,” she said.

Trying to keep up with the response, the Wengers are recruiting volunteers from the community and contacting local businesses and radio stations to help raise donations for the program. Deluxe Laboratories, Panavision and Kodak have already expressed an interest in offering financial support, she said.

Although the first training class will not begin until May, some aspiring stars and directors meet every Tuesday and Thursday at Carol Wenger’s film studio in Westlake Village. They rehearse a musical program that they plan to perform at local schools in the spring.

“We’re doing this to keep the kids busy until we can get the program going,” Carol Wenger said. “We don’t want them to just sit around and wait.”

Once the training gets rolling, the students will gather on the weekends at the Wengers’ 42-acre ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains, west of Thousand Oaks. Entertainment professionals will visit the ranch to help guide the projects, she said.

In addition to the instructors, participants will include licensed therapists from the National Assn. for Affected Families, a nonprofit organization that counsels teen-agers mixed up with gangs or drugs or who come from troubled families.

“We were looking for a project like ACTT,” said Dr. Dan Budenz, chairman of the association and a clinical consultant for Charter Hospital of Thousand Oaks.

“It’s the best alternative that kids can have,” he said. “We are seeing kids willing to turn away from the gangs and drugs and alcohol.”

Gina Lane of Thousand Oaks, an ACTT volunteer, has witnessed the life-changing impact of potential stardom on a troubled teen-ager. She introduced 14-year-old Holly Watkins to the program several weeks ago and has watched her turn her life around.

“She was hanging with the wrong people and getting in trouble with the neighbors,” Lane said. “She’s really mellowed.”

Holly acknowledges that she used to stay out all night on the weekends. “The cops were always picking me up at 7-Eleven and bringing me home drunk,” she said. “This program will keep me busy on the weekends. It’s what I need.”

Jose De LaCruz, a Thousand Oaks 15-year-old, said he signed up to get out of the neighborhood on weekends and away from his gang friends.

“I’ve been out of a gang for a year now, but I’m still getting pressure from guys to get back in,” he said. “I can come to the ranch and get away from that pressure and not worry about drive-by shootings or gang affiliations.”

The students’ first project will be a documentary film about the training program itself. Carol Wenger said she has secured arrangements to distribute the film to schools and correctional facilities nationwide.

The students will also produce and perform in a series of half-hour docudramas with a message instructing teen-agers to avoid gangs and drugs, she said. Videotapes of the shows will also be made available to institutions and the public.

“This is a program for youth, by youth,” she said. “The students’ films will reach millions of other troubled kids throughout the United States.”

Although she said the cost of the program for each student is about $4,000, the students will be charged according to their ability to pay, if at all. The program will take 150 students in its first class and may form another class soon after.

The Wengers are relying on corporate grants and individual donations to subsidize the program.

One of the program’s most passionate supporters is Charles Jordan, a Thousand Oaks man whose 20-year-old daughter was the unintended victim of a drive-by shooting in May.

As a volunteer fund-raiser for the program, Jordan has found a way to channel his grief and frustration over the loss of his daughter into helping youths. “I was apathetic and naive to the gang problem in Thousand Oaks until Jennifer’s death. It really opened my eyes,” Jordan said.

Now Jordan shares the Wengers’ vision that the allure of Hollywood stardom can draw teen-agers away from trouble.

“It’s a very unique program and I would hate to see it wither,” he said. “The kids will be making films in their own language that will get the message across to their peers.”

FYI

Teen-agers interested in signing up for the Adolescent Creative Transitional Training, or adults who want to volunteer time or donate money, can contact Carol Lynn Wenger at (800) 562-8357.