A Hartford high school is getting some time on the silver screen thanks to a local filmmaker. TJ Noel-Sullivan chose his alma mater, Classical Magnet School, to shoot a short film. It centers around a high school basketball team's tryouts and Noel-Sullivan said he pulled from his own experiences as a player on that very basketball court.
“In writing the basketball tryouts for me, I tried to pull from some of my worst experiences over the course of my life,” Noel-Sullivan said, with a smile.
He also pulled from his own teammates. Many of the extras were current and former Gladiators basketball players, too.
“It was a no-brainer for me because it made sense for the story, right? Like I was telling a story that was set in Hartford and I wanted to make sure that the faces we were shooting represented the city of Hartford,” said Noel-Sullivan.
His former coach at Classical also helped, from securing he gym for the three-day shoot, to lending the team’s jerseys.
Noel-Sullivan is hoping to turn it into a full feature length film. You can watch the 20-minute short on Film Shortage or Directors Notes.