Don’t miss Stargirl premiere

Set your DVRs! If you’re a fan of the superhero phenomena both on TV and the big screen, you need to check out the new CW show, DC’s Stargirl, premiering May 19 at 8 PM. (Check your cable listing to verify date/time.)

Even if you’re not a superhero fan, keep reading to see why you should check it out.

I am so excited. Not only do I love these superhero shows/movies, but I have a personal connection to this one. Many of you know I taught English at Painesville’s Riverside High School for thirty years, but you might not know that ten of those years included teaching video production.  Students learned the whole process from developing an idea to filming to editing. We created commercials for our school-televised morning announcements, we filmed and produced videos of school events for the local cable channel, and we developed our own film festival with student created movies complete with trophies and prize awards.

I was blessed to have Kyle Gallagher as a video student from his freshman through to his senior year.  His passion for film started even before he entered my video class. He was already making movies when he was in my eighth grade English class. His talent grew through his perseverance, including through our school film festival which was partly his brainchild.  His special FX skills went beyond mine, but I like to think I challenged him. And he challenged me since he was my student in the first few years I was developing the school video program.

I continued to watch his journey from a distance as he went to SCAD for film and as he started his career. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when he called with exciting news last year. He was moving to LA for a new job! Kyle’s title is VFX Artist on DC’s Stargirl, a new CW show. Kyle tells me he has also been doing VFX supervisor work and directing other projects.

One reviewer from TVLine said about DC’s Stargirl, “The visual effects work — from the personality-infused Cosmic Staff to S.T.R.I.P.E. the robot (who, yes, gets his own training montage) — is solid and sometimes stellar, without ever being splashy.”

I thought it might be fun to chronicle some of Kyle’s journey. In high school Kyle honed his special effects skills through a Star Wars spoof called School Duel. You can see his progression in the three shorts (links below). Impressive work for a high school student! After high school he did the Cleveland Awakens piece (link below). And now, he’s working on a CW network show!

Make sure to open each link in new tab so you don’t lose this page.

Link to School Duel I      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bopKelOLZZg

Link to School Duel II part 1    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qa0q6TEkOw

Link to School Duel II part 2    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pTNY0O0hZw

Link to Cleveland Awakens  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ZmlOOibxs

So if you’re from the Painesville area, you too will feel the thrill of knowing a local kid has developed into a successful man in the entertainment industry.  I am so proud of Kyle! And I’m so excited to see what the future holds for this talented young man!

(If you’d like to leave Kyle a message, comment below. I’ll make sure he sees it!)