Austin, Texas January 23, 2009: The media tech students at McCallum high school are creating a pilot for a TV series that they hope will air on PBS. The series, entitled McCallum, is a dramatic series aimed at audiences age thirteen and up, and is based on the Stevens family; a family that works at and goes to McCallum High School.  The show will follow the lives of two brothers, Dillon and Lake, and their friends at the Fine Arts Academy.  Although many of the scenes will take place in and around the academy, the stories will reach outside the school and into the private lives of Dillon, Lake, their family, and their friends.

In the pilot film, the Stevens’ youngest son Lake, played by Rush Evans, runs away. Future stories will focus on teenage problems such as teen pregnancy and abortion, addictions, suicide, murder, homosexuality and homophobia, dating, alcoholism, racism, drug abuse, bullying, and other situations a teenager might face.  Each episode will have it’s own theme, story, and lesson. As a series, all of the stories will tie together to create a picture of life at the academy and of the Stevens family.

Talented actors from the fine arts academy and the local Austin area were cast by media tech students, led by student casting director Zoe Dahmen. The lead student roles of Lake and Dillon Stevens are being played by Rush Evans and Harrison Council; both theater majors at the academy.  Local actors Tom Ellia and Allyson Ingerman have been cast for the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens. Other cast members include Laurel Day, Anna Binder, Sasha Duncan, Andrew Rogers, Kenny Kretschmer, Denise Manning, Mike McNulty, CC Stinson, Laura Schulman, and Jayne Allen.

The pilot story, conceived and written by Media Technologies teacher Ken Rogers, is being directed by fourteen year old Zach Aguilar. Other students involved are Associate director, Zac Collier, Director of Photography-Justin Gray, Casting- Zoe Dahmen, Production Assistant- Adoree Del Toro, Assistant DP- Zoe Colonna, Wardrobe- Kate Stanford, Makeup- Shayla Geaccone and crew members Alex Hager, Allen Gaertner, and Kelsey Hockmuller.

Filming started January 17 and will go on through the first week in March. A small clip can be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PecigAkYgOQ&feature=channel_page.