text: Travolta brother, friends bring Tinseltown to UNF for children with autism - News - The Florida Times-Union - Jacksonville, FL
  Travolta brother, friends bring Tinseltown to UNF for children with autism
  Jun 25, 2010 at 6:02 PM
  "Let's move it," Joey Travolta tells the crew before actress Dani Moore hits her cue at an elevator in the University of North Florida's student center ballroom.
  "Hi, Mom, how are you doing?" she says on a cell phone before stepping in. "I'll be there in an hour."
  The 11-year-old Ponte Vedra Beach girl met the scarred operator inside, and the "Elevator of Time" snared another victim. That's OK. The evil operator is 13-year-old Daniel Allison of St. Augustine in makeup for the film.
  Travolta, a brother of actor John Travolta, is leading the third annual HEAL Foundation film camp for children with autism.
  "I love it," said Travolta, a former special education teacher. "I didn't go looking to get back into it. It kind of found me."
  Dani and Daniel love being part of a real movie with Hollywood pros helping children with autism learn the ins and outs of Tinseltown.
  "I like to be in front of the camera and I am a drama queen," Dani said.
  "I picked this part," Daniel said. "When they said 'elevator operator,' it came to me about being an evil operator. … I'm a little evil sometimes."
  Travolta is a longtime television and film producer, director and writer. The idea for camp began when he sponsored a film festival seven years ago and a student sought help on a film on autism. That 10-minute film was expanded into a 2006 documentary, "Normal People Scare Me."
  That led to his programs for adults with disabilities and film camps for autistic children five years ago. Now some "very creative" children with autism get help with their confidence, plus communication and cooperation skills, Travolta said.
  "We take them through all the steps of filmmaking from writing and editing to using the camera. They do it all," he said. "It is not just a camp. It is like a pre-vocation and social skills program too."
  The two-week camp kicked off Monday with 50 Duval and St. Johns County children ages 10 to 17. Thirty have autism, the rest are siblings and friends joining in to produce three films to be assembled into a movie called "Friday Night After the Movies."
  Friday saw scenes for "Elevator of Time" shot with characters like "Vinnie" - T.R. Mack.
  "I am learning how to act, write a film, do a script and pretty much a lot of things," the 14-year-old Mandarin teen said. "It's helping me do what I truly like to do."
  Hester Wagner, who teaches at Travolta's Actors for Autism school in California, enjoyed her makeup duties too.
  "Working with these students, I have learned there are no limits to anything," Wagner said. "As far as teaching, I get mostly learning from them."
  Friday's film production wasn't flawless - the elevator door opened once to reveal a UNF employee.
  "You just killed my shot," joked film instructor Dale Oprandy, adding as the door closed that "We sent him where Jimmy Hoffa is."
  Hollywood actors? Travolta smiled - children are easier.
  "I would rather work with them," he said.
  Brenda Eatough is glad he is helping her son David, 10.
  "It … gives him the opportunity to have a creative outlet and just be accepted for who he is," said the Orange Park mother. "He's having a great time."
  Filmlab Productions and MDI Holdings sponsored the camp with each child nominated by a teacher or therapist. Travolta also is spending time in Florida scouting locations for a film called "Tap the Heat."