Mr. Gorelick and his first Filmmaking Class – Image Courtesy: Mrs. Cooper

Mr. Gorelick has taught at Cherry Hill West for nine years. He established himself as a full-time teacher at the school in 2018. Mr. Gorelick is certified to teach in multiple areas, among those areas are English and Broadcasting. However, this year brings a new challenge. In 2023, Cherry Hill West has introduced Filmmaking: a deep dive into how to get your imagination on the screen and how to create short stories. When a new course pops up on the course selections page, often students wonder what exactly the course is about and what the workload is like. Today Mr. Gorelick gives the answers to these questions.

Now that Cherry Hill West has introduced Filmmaking as a potential class for you to enroll in, it is not as simple as clicking enroll and moving on with the day. To enroll in Filmmaking students will have to had already taken Broadcasting 1 and Broadcasting 2. He also does not want the class to be too demanding. He plans to have Filmmaking be more relaxed than other classes. Sometimes there will be homework, and sometimes students will have to do things on their own. Besides that, the workload won’t be a lot. 

Mr. Gorelick was originally a bit scared to take up Broadcasting, since he thought the previous teacher was very good. He stated, “A couple years ago they asked if I would like to teach broadcasting, and I stepped into that position with great reluctance, because the previous broadcasting teacher was excellent.”  He’s come a long way and is now even building on the world of Broadcasting to introduce Filmmaking.  

Mr. Gorelick hopes to dive into the world of Filmmaking by helping the students who enrolled to put their imagination on the screen. As an extension of Broadcasting 1 and 2, he hopes for students to be able to create their own short stories and dive into the director’s mind.  While Broadcasting is closer to the real world, he believes Filmmaking can go deeper into the creative world.  With 17 students enrolled so far, he hopes to build the program from the ground up.

One of the goals of Filmmaking is to help students enter into short film festivals and win prizes in those festivals. Mr. Gorelick hopes these films can be used to lead to further opportunities in college such as scholarships.  He stated, “Students enter their short films into film festivals or student competitions. So there is an opportunity for students to get, potentially if their short films are really good, to get prizes and potential scholarships down the road.”  Additionally, Mr. Gorelick wants students to find their place in the world of writing. He wants students to find the beauty and how to thrive in the world of storytelling and learn how to find their voice on the screen.

The creation of Filmmaking at West has come from the high demand of students wanting to dive further into the director’s mind. When asked what he wanted to accomplish this year, he said, “The gut response is to convince them Marvel Movies are not particularly well made, cause they’re not. . . but one of my goals is and you know this has been my goal for a long time, it’s probably one of the reasons I teach. I love hearing stories, seeing stories, movies. I love reading stories, books, and if I can get one student a year, just one student that’s it to say ‘oh I didn’t see this movie or this book this way I have to learn more about’.  It’s been a success.”   

Mr. Gorelick wants to educate his students about the world of filmmaking.  He wants students to be able to process the world of storytelling from a different view.  He would consider it a great success to show this realm of information to even one student.

Whether it’s revealing the mind of a storyteller, finding the place of a storyteller, or proving Marvel Movies are poorly made, Filmmaking promises to be a prominent new elective.  For all those who take it, it will give them a new experience and view.  But most importantly, will develop their place and perspectives in the world of entertainment.