Well, kinda sorta. See, Barry Jossen, producer of "Dear Diary" -- Oscar winner for Best Achievement in Live Action Short Films -- took a film making class at Kalani in 1976 when he was a junior. The class, taught by language arts instructor Jane Abe, was so much fun that Jossen decided to pursue it as a career.
Jossen, now 36, is head of TV production at DreamWorks SKG -- the studio owned by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
"The class was called 'Film as Art' and was very, very basic about how movies are made," Jossen said from his office at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. "I absolutely fell in love with the whole process."
The eight-minute student film which he made with three others, "Things Go Better with Coke," was about a half-man half-beast who lived on Tantalus
"It was so elementary. We shot it on Super camera with the soundtrack on a regular audio cassette. It was crude at best. But I decided that this is what I wanted to do as a career."
"Dear Diary," written by Jossen's partner David Frankel, is slightly more sophisticated. The 22-minute urban comedy revolves around a New York magazine art director played by Bebe Neuwirth -- best known for her role as Lilith on "Cheers." The married mother of two, having just turned 40, decides to record the events of her day in a journal. The scenes come at a frenetic pace, with images flashing to life on the screen as Neuwirth narrates her diary entries.
"Dear Diary" is not your average short film. First of all, it cost between $1 million and $2 million, used 44 sets and a crew of 78. (By comparison, another Oscar-nominated film, "De Tripas, Corazon," had a budget of only $45,000.)
Jossen's wife, Renne Rousselot, cast the film.
And "Dear Diary" was a television pilot which ABCrejected.
"It's the first time a pilot has won an Academy Award," Jossen said, laughing.
After the ABC rejection, Jossen discussed the idea of entering the pilot in film festivals with Spielberg and Katzenberg, who told him to go for it.
"I just didn't want it to die; we had made a great film that just didn't work as a short film; the network was probably right in not picking it up," Jossen said. "I'm sure Steven and Jeffrey thought the film festival idea was crazy but they let us run with it."
It's that sort of creative freedom on which Dreamworks was founded, Jossen said.
"They said from the beginning that they were going to take chances and believe in the vision of the creative talent. They believed there was a possibility of something good happening with 'Dear Diary.' "
Good idea, but by the time the master had been transferred to 35-millimeter film, most key festivals were over. Academy rules require that a nomination must be either shown at a film festival or released theatrically to qualify for an Oscar. Jossen and Frankel decided to book the film into a lone Los Angeles theater where it played with "Shine."
The rest is the stuff movies are made about.
Jossen moved to Hawaii in 1972, after his father retired from the gas-station business. He was just entering high school. After graduating from Kalani, Jossen attended the University of Hawaii for a year, then followed his girlfriend to Raleigh, N. C., where her parents had retired. Two years later he moved to Los Angeles to start his film career, attending UCLA at the same time.
His production experience was sparse. He had worked at the Public Broadcasting Station in Raleigh and as a cameraman at the local television station.
For six months he hit all the studios, learning quickly how to sneak by studio guards to get inside without an appointment.
"I went to every writer's office, every producer's office, every director's office basically talking to anyone who would talk to me and then handing them my resume," Jossen said.
He eventually was offered an eight-week production assistant job on the Jonestown cult story, a job that ended up lasting six years with him as head of production.
"That was my apprenticeship," Jossen said.
After that another producer with "an impossibly low budget" offered him the producer's post for the $2.1 million, four-hour miniseries "Home Fires" on Showtime.
The producer first hired Jossen to come up with a way the budget could work. It took him three weeks.
"Then he talked to me for five minutes, put it down, asked if I thought I could do it. I said 'Yes.' He said 'Are you sure.' I said 'Yes.' 'But are you really sure,' he said. 'Yes.' "
"OK, you're the producer, now go hire a director," he told the then 26-year-old Jossen.
"I had never produced a thing before; I was scared out of my mind."
Time magazine would name the miniseries, which was Juliet Lewis' first film, one of the year's 10 best television shows.
"I had the benefit of naivete in that I didn't know what I didn't know. Every day was on-the-job training; it still is."
Hollywood puts a tremendous premium on youth, with many people believing that if they haven't made it while in their 20s they never will.
"I learned that different things come to different people at different times in their life and you have to keep working at it and keep believing strongly in your dreams. Then you'll achieve the things you desire," he said.
Jossen doesn't know yet what his next project with Frankel will be because the writer doesn't let anyone see the script until it's completed.
"But I wear two hats," he said. "As a studio executive I'll give you all the industry buzz words: It must be as commercial as possible, and really speak to the 18-49 age group. But as a filmmaker all I want to do is just make great films."
So where is Oscar?
"On the proverbial mantle," Jossen said. "It's a great addition."