STUDENT VIDEOS USE HUMOUR, PLAIN TALK ON SEX, DRUGS

Series Deals With Real-Life Teen Issues

Today's teenagers are supposed to know all about sex, drugs and
different lifestyles. They say they do -- but often they don't.

Two Grade 12 students at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School and
their communications teacher have begun a business venture they say
can reach and educate teens who need more information about such
sensitive topics.

The trio connected during a communications class last year. Teacher
Kerry Chalmers found it impossible not to notice students Paul
Thompson, 17, and Asif Deen, 16.

"They're a bit off the wall," Mr. Chalmers said. "They're great
comedians and the rest of the class loved them, but trying to keep
them seated in one place was a daily challenge."

Finally, in something approaching desperation, he suggested the duo
take on a special project.

"I've taught for more than 30 years and over that time, I've met a
lot of kids with problems of all sorts, whether it be suicide, sexual
orientation or drugs," Mr. Chalmers said. "I thought it would be
really good to put something together to try to help these kids."

Paul and Asif, who have been making films together since they were
five years old, loved the idea. The result of the collaboration is a
series of videos dealing with teen issues; two videos are finished,
and there are plans to make six more.

Mr. Chalmers, the students' adviser and co-producer, is using his
firm, Dream Weaver Communications Inc., as the holding company for
the project. The teacher and his students hope to market the videos
to parents, schools and teens at $29.95 each.

According to the trio, early reaction has been good. Paul and Asif
held a workshop at a recent conference in Toronto on safe and healthy
schools, held by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation.
"We finished the presentation and they didn't leave. They lined up to
talk to us," Paul said. "It was the best day of our lives."

The videos attempt to use teen humour and high production values to
get across valuable information.

While researching the episode called It Was Only Oral Sex -- named
for the way teens look at it, Mr. Chalmers said -- they discovered
that there are all sorts of problems. One in five people has herpes,
for instance, and can transmit the incurable disease through oral
sex. Others have gonorrhea of the throat, not to mention HIV and
other sexually transmitted infections.

Paul portrays Gino, a confident, outgoing teen with something to say
about everything. He sometimes lives on the edge, but when someone
needs a friend, he's there with answers and support.

Asif plays Gerome, a slightly insecure youth faced with the normal
pressures of a teen growing up. His actions bring him problem after
problem with no clear solutions. He relies heavily on Gino for
direction -- as in how to don a condom, a lesson he fails to employ
while in the thrall of "an experienced woman."

In the second video, he learns about the unfortunate byproducts of
oral sex performed in a moving car by a young woman who is "really
good at breaking in virgins."

Gino drags him into the school health clinic for a chat with a
sympathetic nurse. While getting the message across, Paul doesn't
miss a comedic trick and, as Gino, grabs enough free condoms to keep
the most active lothario safe for months, while telling the amused
nurse that he'll be back for more soon. Typical teen bravado.

Adam Syrnyk, 18, plays another character in the videos: Perry, the
"cute" young guy in school who is attractive to both sexes, but never
seems to have a girlfriend.

Asif, who acts in the series and composes the music for the videos,
said they approached the project by presenting what they saw as
useful information in a fun way, without lecturing.

"I think this is a step up from the usual lecture approach," said
Paul, who writes much of the script material, acts, does some camera
work and edits the videos.

"We don't say 'Don't use drugs,' or 'Don't have sex.' That's the
message, but we know a certain number of teens are going to
experiment, so we say 'Here's what you can do to cut down the risks
- -- if you're going to do it, be safe.'"

Asif added: "And the only way to get our audience to listen to the
message is to be funny."

"It's done by teens, for teens," Paul said.

When Mr. Chalmers first pitched the series to Sir Wilfrid Laurier's
principal, Patsy Agard, he described it as being "on the edge," done
that way so as not to turn off their intended audience.

Ms. Agard gave them the go-ahead. But rather than air the videos on
the school's internal TV network, she decided the videos should be
shown to smaller groups, in health, society and parenting classes.
The information requires interaction with teachers who are
comfortable delivering the course material and discussing the issues
with students, she said.

"I think this is a product that is long overdue," she said. "As
adults, we quite often make the decisions as to what's appropriate
and what's not, and they're taking the reality of things the teens
are facing and addressing it."

While she is supportive of the project, Ms. Agard -- who has made a
cameo appearance in the series, as have other staff members --
stressed that the students are working independently of the school.

The videomakers themselves learned a few things about safe sex while
creating the first episode, Condom Trouble.

"They figured it would be really easy," Mr. Chalmers said. "They
headed off to the local Booster Juice and sat down at a table with a
banana and a bunch of condoms, filmed it as customers wandered past,
and brought it back to show to me.

"I said, 'That's good work, but you put the condom on wrong.'" Once
the Grade 11 students got over their embarrassment, they headed out
to reshoot the scene.

Erin Henry, a City of Ottawa public health nurse who staffs the
clinic at Sir Wilfrid, said she and her nursing colleague became
aware of the project when Paul and Asif were looking for information
before shooting the first video.

"They showed us the video when it was finished, and we said that's
not quite right, and they went away and fixed it," Ms. Henry said.

The public health department is not at all involved with the video
productions, but has offered to check them for factual correctness,
she said. They won't review any videos that do not have a health
component, she added.

"We like to support youth initiatives to youth," Ms. Henry said.
"They're two great kids and they're doing a great job."

Condom Trouble and Up in Smoke are available for sale and It Was Only
Oral Sex is being looked at by the health department. A fourth, I'm
Not Gay!, is being edited.

Still to come are Under the eFluence (hard drugs) Open the Door
(coming out), Leave Me Alone (bullying) and I Like You As You Were
(being yourself). The team hopes to have all the videos finished by March.

One of the challenges for the production team is to get female
students into the videos; some girls are ready to participate, the
boys say, but parents have been reluctant to sign releases.

At the end of each show, the actors do an out-take, in which they
step out of character and talk about the show and what the message
was. One scene in an out-take took 356 attempts to get the
presentation right; then the health department said there were
inaccuracies. Paul and Asif had to reshoot it, and there went about
another 150 takes.

"By then they were so tired of saying what they were saying, but we
are determined to get it right. It's got to be right," Mr. Chalmers
said. "We'll spend hours trying to get the editing right, the message
right and pull the whole thing together."

The group is selling the DVDs through its website, hormonestv.com,
but Mr. Chalmers said they would like to get the videos into
drugstores so that parents can buy them to take home as a discussion tool.

The team members might not get rich, but the students are hoping to
cover production costs and have some money to buy better equipment,
such as a high-definition camera.

As well, Mr. Chalmers said, "Paul wants to go to Humber College to do
the comedy course and Asif would like to go into the business side,
so they need money to do those things."