OPENING CREDITS

March 18, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

Tom Morris’ film- making career is off to an impressive start.

In his first feature film, “General Education,” the Hubbard native directed Janeane Garofalo and TV actor Larry Miller.

The film has been accepted by the Cleveland International Film Festival, where it will get its world premiere later this month. It also has been accepted by the Newport Beach (Calif.) Film Festival.

Morris is a 2007 Hubbard High graduate. After completing film school at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2010, he formed a production company with three classmates with whom he shared a house.

The four called their company Pelican House Productions, because they lived in a house on Pelican Avenue.

The group — which also includes Elliot Feld, Jaz Kalkat and Kevin Liang — also wrote, cast and produced “General Education.”

Pelican House is now planning its sophomore film, “Truck World,” which is inspired by the truck stop at the Hubbard exit of Interstate 80.

Morris and his cohorts have pulled off an auspicious start for having next to no professional experience. But one gets the impression he has been so busy that the magnitude of his accomplishment hasn’t yet sunk in.

In fact, Morris and his partners initially were disappointed.

“When we were talking about the film, we were like ‘first we’ll get it in Sundance, and then it will become a big ‘Napoleon Dynamite’-type hit,” said Morris in a phone interview from California. “We were dreaming and for a while we thought we didn’t hit that goal. But then we screened it at our school, and everybody got behind it and wanted to help and for the first time we realized that we did achieve a lot. I’m starting to feel pretty good about what we’ve done.”

“General Education” is a quirky comedy about a high school senior named Levi who gets a tennis scholarship at a university. The only problem is, he didn’t graduate and must take summer school before his parents find out that he failed science. While there, he falls in love with a classmate, Katie, and then has to make a choice between tennis and receiving a proper education.

“It’s an off-the-wall comedy,” said Morris. “It has a lot of heart. Goofy things happen, but the family comes together, and Levi confronts his father to control his own future.”

Chris Sheffield (“Transformers,” “The Rookie”) plays Levi, and Maiara Walsh (“Switched at Birth,” “Desperate Housewives”) is Katie.

Garofalo and Miller play Levi’s parents. The cast also includes Bobby Campo, McKaley Miller, Elaine Hendrix and Mercedes Masohn.

“We tossed about names of actors who we thought would be best for this movie, and we all thought of Janeane,” said Morris. “We didn’t think she’d do it, but we got a script to her and she liked it.”

Pelican House raised about a half-million dollars for the film’s budget. The film was shot in three weeks last summer in Gridley, Calif., which is Kalkut’s hometown, a small farm town in northern California.

A crew of 55 was hired. The Screen Actors Guild film used 30 actors, 20 of which had substantial speaking roles. About 500 extras were used in the graduation scene at Gridley High School.

“The town was excited,” said Morris. “People would come by and hang around and volunteer to help.”

Morris hopes “General Education” will be accepted by a few more film festivals. After that, Pelican House is shooting for a limited theatrical release before being released on DVD and to Netflix. He also hopes to have it screened in Youngstown at some point.

Even as a student at Hubbard High, Morris always knew he wanted to be involved in filmmaking. He credits his art teacher at Hubbard, Josh MacMillan, with supporting his goals.

“[MacMillan] allowed me to make movies as a final class project,” said Morris, “and I brought that element to the film ... Levi also meets a teacher who sees his talents.”

While at Hubbard, Morris was an avid skateboarder who set up ramps in his backyard and made videos of the extreme sports action with his friends. He was also in a rock band called Hit the Floor, which played at The Cellar in Struthers and at skate parks throughout the area.

He is one of four children of John and Mary Morris.