‘Chang Can Dunk’ screening celebrates CT students, teachers who were extras
In the fall of 2021, members of Connecticut high school marching bands served as background actors for a Disney film about kids in a marching band. On March 2, they traded their uniforms for suits and dresses to see the movie on the big screen at the Avon Theatre Film Center in Stamford.
The coming-of-age film “Chang Can Dunk,” released on Disney+ March 10, follows an Asian-American teen in a marching band who bets the school’s basketball star he can dunk a basketball by Homecoming, in hopes of impressing his crush and peers.
More than 200 people attended the pre-screening, which Disney hosted to recognize the extras and crew members from Connecticut. Many beamed as they posed for the camera on the mini red carpet outside the theater and next to the movie posters scattered throughout the venue.
Paige Jockers, a drum major and student at Frank Scott Bunnell High School in Stratford, was one of the 55 marching band members from Bunnell who appeared as extra in the film. The movie’s main characters, Chang, Kristy and Bo, are all in a marching band.
“It was cool to be a part of something that showcases marching band in such a positive way, especially on Disney,” Jockers said.
Filming took place in Stamford, Bridgeport, Milford and Stratford from October to December 2021. During that period, the movie employed 114 crew members, hired 257 background actors and supported 105 vendors, an event organizer said.
One of the filming locations was Westhill High School in Stamford. Principal Michael Rinaldi attended the Thursday evening event and redecorated the school’s gymnasium, hallways and banners last year to look like the film’s fictional Cresthill High School. Disney also
invited the owners of the homes used for the film, the Boys and Girls Club of Stamford and employees from Stratford Public Works, the Stamford Town Center and other businesses.
Caroline Simmons, the mayor of Stamford, said that the project exemplifies the “booming industry” of art and media in the state.
Bunnell High School’s director of bands Jim Miller — sporting the same tie he had worn when receiving his Stratford Teacher of the Year honor — prepared the drill formations and wrote the musical arrangements for the film’s marching band performances, which occur in some of the most pivotal scenes of the movie, he said.
The movie was filmed at Bunnell for a total of four days during the school’s annual Cavalcade of Bands competition, Miller said. Of his 37 years on the job, this was his first time simultaneously preparing his students for both a movie shoot and for a competition.
“It was like having two bands at one time. And the kids ... they were amazing. They learned all this new material. And we had a special practice every week just for those kids,” he said.
Miller said the director Jingyi Shao did an “incredible job” making the performances look authentic. Miller gave two months of drum lessons to one of the main actors Zoë Renee, who plays Kristy, a drummer and Chang’s crush.
“When I took this on, I said to them,‘Listen, I’m going to do this, but I have to be promised that it’s going to look right. I can’t have the audience seeing one thing and hearing something else,’ ” he said. “It’s really important to me because marching bands in film and in commercials, more often than not, don’t look like what they’re playing.”
During the film’s screening at the Avon, members of the crowd would whisper when a familiar location appeared and at the end, many students whipped out their cameras to film the credits, specifically the moment they spotted their name.
Deanna Cronin, a Bunnell alumna and snare drummer, was Renee’s body double during filming at Bunnell and would take her place in some shots of Kristy playing the drums. Watching the movie on the big screen was a “very surreal” experience, Cronin said.
“It’s something that doesn’t really happen to very many people,” Cronin said.
Filming at Bunnell lasted four days, Miller said. Christopher Koch, the assistant principal at Bunnell, took his kids to one of the film shoots, where a crowd of Bunnell community members showed up to be background extras for one of the movies’ sports games, he said.
“The great thing about it is it really spreads just beyond the band. The whole student body was so excited about the opportunity,” he said.
In February, Miller and the band members were invited to attend the movie premiere at Walt Disney Studios in California and performed in a parade on Disneyland’s Main Street, Miller said.
“Teachers are always looking for ways to give their students assignments that are real-world experience. It’s not just something theoretical or on paper or in the classroom,” he said. “Well, there’s no greater real-world experience than actually doing what these kids did, which was performing the film.”
Miller believes the film’s message will also resonate with the students.
“You apply yourself, which is what I tell the students all the time. If you have a dream, a
vision of what you want, you can make that happen, but you just have to put the work in. And that’s key,” he said.
In a video message before the
screening, director Jingyi Shao thanked everyone in the audience.
“Without you, Chang would not have been able to fly,” he said.