It takes many helping hands to take a movie from preproduction to release. One Bonney Lake High School student had a chance to experience promotion of a new release firsthand.

Jordin Andrade assisted Regal Tall Firs Theater in Bonney Lake in the promotion and operation of a Jan. 23 community event for the release of “The Tooth Fairy,” a family comedy.

“I’ve always wanted to get into advertising and I figured that movie theaters, they advertise a lot of movies, so I went down to Tall Firs and they took me on to help with this project,” Andrade said.

High school students in Washington state are required to complete a senior project to meet their graduation requirement. Bonney Lake High School operates the requirement as a self-directed learning project that can be started the summer before a student’s senior year.

Seniors are expected to demonstrate self-directed learning by selecting a topic of genuine interest, completing and learning it during 15 hours, demonstrated by learning logs maintained throughout the project.

Andrade worked closely with Jennie Drake, the promotions manager for Tall Firs.

Every few months, Tall Firs focuses all of its creative energy on one film, Drake said. Employees decorate the theatre and host an activity day. The Saturday event also included a food drive and a family Christmas adoption in conjunction with the Salvation Army.

Andrade began work on his senior project in November. He assisted in promotion of the event from the ground up, learning how the theatre ordered and purchased items like fliers from suppliers, distributing the fliers to the community and otherwise assisting Drake.

For the event itself, he helped set up decorations and subsequently helped supervise the event to ensure everything went smoothly.

“It was great,” he said. “I learned to use advertising, I learned what happens behind the movie scenes, I learned how the theater business is run and I learned about promoting new releases.”

The completion of the event marks the completion of Andrade’s required 15 hours. He will now compile his learning logs for presentation to the senior project coordinator.