By Roderick Boyd Staff Writer
As most students went home and watched TV on Oct. 15, the boys of OPrep went to work: Hollywood style.
OPrep students taped the pilot for their very own reality show “Street Cred” in hopes of getting funding for a weekly reality show.
The show is the result of their participation in the League of Extraordinary Gentleman’s male mentoring program, which is designed to expose students to different careers and occupations as well as actual real world activities while teaching character skills. OPrep students Terrell Dewhart, Roderick Boyd, Mateyo Savage, James Jackson, Marquis Day and Kahlil Lee had the added bonus of meeting some of Hollywood’s A-listers.
Lala Anthony, Hill Harper and Corey Hardict, who were in town filming “Destined,” took time out of their filming schedules to have a sit down and answer questions from several Detroit Public Schools.
The meeting afforded the students an opportunity to pick the brains of some of Hollywood’s hottest stars.
“As our students prepare to shoot their own reality show, we wanted our students to have the opportunity to meet the some of the best in the field,” said Nashid Sharrief, managing partner at the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and older brother to film producer Sultan Sharrief.
The “Street Cred” pilot was filmed mostly at Detroit School of the Arts and included other students from DPS. Students were filmed on set saying small lines, acting out parts, and being photographed in different settings. All of this is being brought together in the end to produce a trailer like video that will be presented to film directors to get funding for a fully produced series.
OPrep sophomore James Jackson described the experience as “crispy.”
The students were filmed doing sample shots of the weekly challenges that students are asked to participate in as a part of the mentoring program.
“I really didn’t think they were going to show up, so after they did and each actor explained their character, I had to ask Lala, ‘Was playing two sides of one character difficult?’” said senior Marquis Day said.
