By: Mylinda Hoover
4/13/2006

Shawn Parker is a typical 17-year-old. He goes to movies occasionally when he has some extra cash. He owns a modest stack of movies that he enjoys and some that he would like to watch if he had more time. There is an Alf poster on one wall of his bedroom, an “Animal House” poster on another, and an infamous poster of two girls kissing hangs above his bed.

Behind the posters is a painting of the Hollywood hills, and on the floor, a mini-fridge filled with blue and red Powerade. In one snug corner, there is a filmmaker’s chair, and beneath everything, a checkered tile floor.

To make the collection complete, he owns a “million dollar” teddy bear to bring him good luck and has a picture of himself framed with a million-dollar check made out to himself inside. But he is not rich at all. He still lives with his parents and his older brother in Haysville.

Most people would never guess that Parker is filming “Chase,” a street-racing movie that will be shown at the Warren Theatres this July, or that this high school senior has also been attending Friends University for the past year.

Parker goes to Campus High School and will graduate in May.  However, last semester he also took the 3D Animation and Computer Video classes to prepare for film school.

It all started suddenly. One day Parker went to the Warren Theatre. As he enjoyed the movie, he thought, “Why can’t I do that?” and that’s when he decided that he would make movies.

Parker doesn’t have to try hard to think outside the box because he lives outside it already.  This is why Skylar Lovelace, a film teacher at Friends, is not reluctant to lend him her off-limits camcorder to film the movie.

“It is unusual to have someone in the class working on his own feature-length film,” Lovelace said.

She describes him as “very unassuming” and “not egotistical, which is why he’s been able to connect with so many people.”

“His age doesn’t seem to be a factor; it’s his level of commitment,” Lovelace said.

This is one of the reasons Dante Davis Design decided to market Parker’s film.

The marketing firm told him that “at your age, you know who you are, you know what you want to do, and you know how to get it.”

By his sophomore year Parker had completed all the graphics classes that Campus High School offered.

In a history project, he documented “The Roaring 20s.”

“A lot of people did posters.  I just did a DVD,” he said as though it were nothing to make a film.

While some college students are not sure how to properly write a works-cited page, Parker has already been granted permission to use clips of several live newscasts from CNN to make a commemorative piece over the catastrophe of 9-11.

As a sophomore in high school he wrote a screenplay called, “Love at First Sight.”  Even though these were high school projects, he said he was having so much fun that he didn’t have to think about it. He just did it.

“When my friends were out getting drunk, I was doing this,” Parker said.

Everyone tells him he could be the next Spielberg, and although he is modest, he admits that other directors aren’t his inspiration.

Yet it wasn’t until he saw “Derailed” in the theater that his writing took on a twist.  “Derailed” is about how the lives of two lovers become derailed when a criminal catches them committing adultery together and blackmails them for money. It was the surprise ending that inspired him the most.

Parker actually doesn’t enjoy writing screenplays and believes his actors “should adopt (their) own script.”

He has written a 43-page script for his 27 characters. He started filming March 4 but has had some dilemmas.

“A lot of people don’t take me seriously,” said Parker.

He knew when he tried to contact the Warren Theatres that getting to talk directly to Bill Warren might be unlikely. However, after Parker explained his situation and what he wanted to do, Warren sent him an encouraging e-mail.

But many people don’t give him the chance to explain as thoroughly.

He needs permission to street race legally. His original plan was to film in Park City, but many municipalities have turned him down. 

He joked that he thought about putting his set in front of police stations to race because they were unwilling to give him a chance.

“I’m not really a rebel. I just see things differently,” Parker said.

In addition to finding a place to film, one of his main characters had to have facial reconstructive surgery after shattering many bones in his face while pitching in a baseball game.

Troubleshooting does not seem to be a problem though. Parker is the cameraman, executive producer and director, scriptwriter, voiceover, co-graphics editor and much more. It seems the only thing that would be hard for him to do is to act in his own movie.

“I did a little of that, too,” Parker said laughing.

One of the things Parker finds funny is that he has to get release forms for his actors who, in most cases, are not 18.

As he showed a clip shot at Starbucks, he saw a little girl running around in the background, which he hadn’t seen while he was filming. 

Laughing, he said, “I’m going to have to get another release form, but who knows where she is now!”

After the movie debuts in August, Parker will move out for the first time as he begins his studies at the New York Film Academy in Universal Studios Hollywood.  He plans to use college as a backup plan.

Although Parker’s company, Infinity Films, is incorporated in Kansas and will be advertised on Cox television alongside the new “Fast and the Furious” movie, Parker said this was not his dream.  All of these accomplishments and Parker wanted to be a professional soccer player. Go figure.