Laura and Robert Sams looked full of excitement as they playfully discussed their past achievements and future plans.
Robert, a zoology senior, and his sister Laura, an agricultural and natural resources communication and education graduate student, wrote, directed and edited a video based on their cousins’ bestselling children’s book “Stranger in the Woods.”
The authors of the book, Carl Sams and Jean Stoick, were inspired to make a movie after taking a video camera along with them to the woods during their photo shoots for the book, Robert said.
“Soon after that, we read a fake script for the movie, and it just wasn’t good,” he said. “It wasn’t creative. We figured we could do it better.”
Carl invited them to come up with voices and ideas for the characters in the video, Laura said as Robert hunched up and did an impression of his squirrel voice.
Laura laughed and recalled the week they spent working on it, and their lack of equipment.
“We spent our spring break coming up with voices, doing them into a microphone, and using pillows around our heads to simulate a sounding booth,” she said.
After pilot-testing the movie with children all over Michigan, it came out in mid-December, Laura said.
“The kids really thought it was funny. We missed the holiday market. However, it has still gotten a lot of response. We’re really excited. We’ve already sold a couple thousand.”
In addition to the movie, Robert and Laura also developed a soundtrack for “Stranger in the Woods.” The two wrote most of the songs with the help of Marc Stevens, a 2001 MSU graduate.
The whole project was a family affair, and Laura gave her grandmother credit.
“Two of the songs our grandma wrote when she was 15. They’re sort of ragtime-ish. They’re grandma-style.”
Stevens laughed remembering his work with Robert and Laura.
“It was fun working with them, they were so creative, they had all these ideas already,” Stevens said. “They were also really easy to get along with and laugh with.
“It was amazing the first time we sat down to work on it, we ended up coming out with four or five songs in one sitting. It was like a creative explosion.”
Now, Robert and Laura travel the state through their company, Sisbro Edventures, presenting how-to-make-a-book workshops to elementary-aged children, bringing their guitar and keyboard along with them.
“The kids really love it,” Laura said. “We try to make it a good combination of education and entertainment.”
“Edutainment,” Robert joked.
Even with as much as they already have accomplished, Robert and Laura have more plans for their video. Laura talked about raising money for a cause.
“We’re hoping to use the movie as a fund-raiser, maybe view it on PBS. Our cause is still unknown, but that’s our goal.”
The video is scheduled to be shown March 17 at the East Lansing Children’s Film Festival.
