Instead of a red carpet, a yellow-brick road welcomed guests to the premiere of a student-made film at Avonworth High School.

Outside the premiere, on May 23, students and parents posed for photos in front of an Emerald City backdrop while, inside, families gathered for the debut of the animated “Finding Stories of Wonder in the Land of Oz.”

Elementary, middle and high school students from 17 Pennsylvania school districts used real-world production skills to combine a series of scenes — each made by students from a given district — into an hour-long movie. That process exposed them to the workflow used in Hollywood filmmaking, with some students finishing the project with newly found consideration for careers in the industry.

The film was produced with a grant from The Grable Foundation, which provides support to programs that focus on child development in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Over the course of the film, Dorothy finds herself back in the land of Oz, which is now suffering from environmental issues such as deforestation and water scarcity. Dorothy and her friends work to find solutions, including using drones to plant trees and spreading the word about water conservation.

Students were responsible for writing, storyboarding, creating backdrops and recording characters’ voices. Using production software (Wonder Media’s Story Maker), they choose from a series of animations to fit characters’ actions.

Though working on the movie was hard work, South Allegheny Elementary School students said the overall experience was worth it.

“I’ve always wanted to do an acting job, and this is my first one,” said fifth grader Kearsten Dodds. “I loved the whole movie, and getting to see it all put together was amazing.”

Other South Allegheny fifth graders were also excited about the finished product too, including Northerly Hamilton, who said the effort could lead to a future job opportunity. Evelyn Watkins said she would “love” to take on similar projects in the future, and Jack Baumam said the experience brought his team, which met every Wednesday during the year, closer together.

Though each scene is only a few minutes long, the project took each group of students an entire school year to complete.

“We created a system where the animation is done, but [the students] have to write for the animated characters and they have to think about the backgrounds, and they have to imagine the sound design and create the music that’s underneath, that creates the emotion of the scene,” Wonder Media CEO Terry Thoren said.

Previously the CEO of Klasky Csupo Inc. — the company that produced “Rugrats” (1991-2003) — Thoren said everything the students learned in the process of making the film is similar to the skills needed for media arts jobs.

“We want to expose children early — whether they be in elementary school, middle school or high school — into the same production pipeline that Hollywood uses so that, somewhere along that pipeline, they may say, ‘This is what I want to do when I grow up,’” he said.

“If we can get that spark in a child at an early age, who knows what they can create for us? But they have to be exposed to the hard work that goes into even making these little scenes.”

South Allegheny Elementary School teacher Jennifer Rea said she was nervous but excited to take on the animation project with her fifth grade students, some of whom she has known since they were in kindergarten. Those students also shot a “making of” video that was shown during the film’s premiere.

“Getting to work with this group and do a project meaningful for the environment and just getting to work on an animation project is just super exciting,” said Rea.

She said she’s hoping to start an after-school animation club at South Allegheny Elementary where students can continue creating films, comics and cartoons.

“They have grown so much. It has opened their eyes, the movie-making process and all the aspects involved,” Rea said. “They have found so many different career paths and opportunities that they have in their future. It just really expanded their horizons beyond the classroom.”

“Finding Stories of Wonder in the Land of Oz” is available to watch on the WonderGrove Kids YouTube channel.