ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — This month a new musical was released on Amazon Prime, and everyone involved, from the writer to the director to the actors, is from Tampa Bay.
“'Filtered' is about 10 students in the course of a year, and the effects of social media and media in general on their psyche and their psychological states and their relationships,” director Roy Saringo said.
When Saringo and writer Katie Combs teamed up, they knew they had something special: an authentic look at high school today from the students themselves.
“I feel like it was more of us doing the research and her taking our research and our lives and just putting it all into this movie to make it what our generation actually is,” actor Caydince Carvalho said.
Katie said their decision to use kids who weren't actors helped them relate.
“I thought, 'This is something that they are really feeling in their lives,'” said Katie Combs.
Parts of the film were shot at Northside Christian School in St. Petersburg, where three of the actors actually graduated. They even used current students as extras.
“They were all really surprised because we didn’t give them a notice or anything. We just started shooting during school, so we would have to stop takes when the bell was going off,” actor Caleb Combs said.
The movie touches on serious subjects like bullying, suicide and gun violence.
“Sometimes there's like debates between generations about, like, who had it worse, but I think like this generation has a unique struggle,” actor Charlotte Swett said.
“Filtered” is currently available on Amazon Prime. The cast believes people of all ages can benefit from watching.
“My goal is that you would go see the movie with a person from a different generation and just walk away going, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize you were dealing with that,'” Katie said.
