Every Fifteen Minutes is a documentary-style production that educates students about the dangers of driving under influence. It’s a major project with multiple city-wide collaborations, usually with hospitals, paramedics, and the police and fire departments. Each Pleasanton high school alternates between doing the film every two years, and this year’s Amador production was especially difficult with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Drunk driving is also a very serious problem for teens our age, so Every 15 Minutes helps to educate teens and hopefully save lives. It was important to make this even if there is a pandemic,” said cast member Mica Wang (‘22).

Usually, the production of the film was very interactive with the school. There would be funerals set up for “deceased” cast members, used as another opportunity to help educate students about the dangers of drunk driving. Another major tradition was to film the customary crash scene with students from the school watching. For reasons due to the coronavirus, these usual traditions couldn’t happen.

“It was quite different this year. For example, the party scene had to be toned down quite a bit. We also took a ton of safety precautions: everyone wore masks at all times except for actors during filming, and we socially distanced ourselves as much as possible. We also all had to sign forms stating we had no COVID symptoms.” said Wang (’22).

Although there were some obstacles that took place while filming, there weren’t any big problems regarding the budget or the cast members. The movie was slightly shorter, but the strong interviews with parents and well executed scenes resulted in a high quality film. The interview with former Superior Court judge Wendy Reynolds allowed for a great experience for the audience. 

“Overall, my experience with Every 15 Minutes was very positive. Filming was super fun, and the retreat at the end was really eye-opening. I would definitely recommend being part of it, it’s really an indescribable experience,” said Mica Wang (’22).

The 2021 Every 15 Minutes video is linked below. For more behind-the-scenes photos and past EFM videos, their website can be found here.