James Franco, class of 1996, answers students’ questions in The Campanile’s classroom after a full day of filming. Franco visisted Paly to start a documentary project about high school.

– Marc Havlik

Palo Alto High School graduate James Franco, now an Oscar-nominated actor and burgeoning director, electrified campus yesterday with a visit made primarily to film parts of the school day as a starting point for an upcoming documentary about high school.

“I’m acting in a big movie this summer called Oz, and it’s in Detroit,” Franco said. “Generally when I go on location for a big movie like that where I’m going to be spending a lot of time in a place, I like to have side projects, so this is going to be my side project. I knew I needed to get this footage before the summer, and so we got it in just in time.”

Franco explained that his documentary would discuss high school and its representation in the media, though the project is in its beginning stages and much is yet to be determined.

“It’s kind of an examination of high school but it’s also an examination of how high school is represented in entertainment [and] in television,” Franco said. “I don’t quite know; I’d like it to be kind of open right now.”

The actor, currently in the digital media program at the Rhode Island School of Design, added: “I have been doing a series of projects that involve both my life and also material from other sources.” 

Franco was seen all over campus, on the Quad during brunch and lunch getting footage, in the library and some classrooms – he even appeared briefly on Paly’s InFocus television network.

After a full day of filming all over Paly, Franco talked to a group of students about the root of his interest for this documentary in journalism adviser Esther Wojcicki’s room, where he was once a member of Paly’s newspaper, The Campanile.

“For me, high school was a very intense time,” Franco said. “I feel like everything that I have done since high school I kind of discovered in high school, or started working on in high school. I feel like I had a ton of formative experiences.”

His documentary project will explore the effects of interpretations of high school through different media and technology.

“In our day and age, digital media is pervasive — I’m sure somebody here is filming me right now and it’s going to be on the Internet,” Franco said. “It’s like our whole world is digitized … digital media, movies [and] television are part of the fabric of our lives now and I consider that fair game as source material for the work I do.”

Franco’s current plan is to contrast a popular show he starred in, “Freaks and Geeks,” with real footage in the documentary.

“I don’t know what the end result will be but I do want to kind of compare a fictional version of high school from a show [“Freaks and Geeks”] that a lot of people consider [what their high school experience was like], but it [“Freaks and Geeks”] is also a television show … it’s slick, it’s edited, it’s written, it’s presented in a certain way so I know that the footage we got today, which is just everybody walking around, is going to feel much different.”

Franco later continued on this strain. 

“There are a lot of these shows about high school and in some ways they are kind of real but in other ways … all they are really doing is writing it, casting it, directing it in ways that they think people will like so that they will watch it. That is it. So these kids are rich, these kids are having sex, these kids are super hip, but in a weird way it influences the youth too. If you watch that, you cannot help but have that infiltrate you in some way.”

Franco described his visit to Paly as a “one day thing” and noted that he would not return to Paly to continue working on this project. However, he added that he might be back next year for a “big” and “unrelated” project.

Franco left the floor open to questions while he was in Wojcicki’s classroom, during part of 6th period and Tutorial, discussing everything from his career in the film industry to his reflections on high school. He laughed with the crowd as they discussed Paly traditions and listened to anecdotes of Franco’s Paly experience; Franco was impressed with the number of streakers from the classes of 2010 and 2011, recounting that his senior year, a friend of his was the sole streaker. 

Principal Phil Winston said he was alerted about Franco’s visit, “a little while ago,” and added, “I think it’s an honor that he decided to come to Paly.”

Wojcicki, who taught Franco, also highlighted the positive effects of his visit.

“I think it’s great for us,” Wojcicki said. “I think it’s great for him too. It shows also that he’s really interested in education, he really cares about Palo Alto. I think it’s a reinforcement for what a great school Paly is that he loves to keep in touch with the school and the community, the journalism program, and with the teachers.”

Students all over campus discussed his presence, and hordes gathered to follow him during brunch and lunch. 

Campus supervisors Scott Reese and Mary Puorro spent the day escorting Franco around campus and assisting him with crowd control.

“We are here to more or less deflect people from taking his space at times, [and] try to help him out from being overwhelmed by too many people,” Reese said. “He’s pretty good at dealing with kids, and of course he went to this school so making his way around he feels very comfortable … They [Franco and his team] pretty much set their own routines of what they want to go film, who they want to talk to, or how much time they want to spend giving autographs or pictures and we just try and make sure people behave themselves and are respectful.” 

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