Portion of profits from teenager’s movie for Heart & Stroke Foundation and Cancer Society

“It’s just about me and my friends having fun,” said the Barrington Municipal High School Grade 10 student.

Although much of the filming of Dukes of Haggard may have been playful, the project has a much more serious side. A portion of the sales from this production is being directed towards the Heart & Stroke Foundation and Canadian Cancer Society.

Dillon’s grandfather Cecil Garland of Shelburne passed away at 52 from heart failure. His grandmother Helen Crowell of Barrington died from brain cancer.

Garland says he learned about filmmaking on his own.

“My mother had an old Panasonic camera, it was about the size of a toaster and we just started filming stuff with that. Then we got more serious and my mother and I split on a JVC camera.

“I just kind of experiment and make little videos and ask people what they think of it,” he said.

He bought a professional editing program and plans on burning the movie on to DVDs and selling them at stores in Barrington and through school (if permitted) as well as online.

He’ll be selling the production as a four-disk package with the movie, bonus features, a prank call disk and the best videos from Duke of Haggard’s Youtube postings.

Last summer Garland visited Alberta and made a three-minute ‘Alberta Montage’ set to Tom Petty’s Saving Grace in order to preview Dukes of Haggard. The footage is fast and snappy with unusual angles and interesting subjects.

Garland’s mother, Sandy Garland-Brannen, says he has had a passion about how movies were made since he was a little boy.

“He used to watch them and just be amazed at how they were put together. He wouldn’t just watch the movie and that would be it, he’d have to know how they did all that stuff,” she said.

Garland says he hopes eventually to go to a film school that he has in mind.

“I want to work on my filming skills and after that I plan on making more movies and making that a career,” he said.

The premier for Dukes of Haggard is on Saturday, April 26 by invitation only at the Old Schoolhouse Restaurant in Barrington. The DVD release is scheduled for May 2.