Akeelah and the Bee (2006)

The production is smaller than most and, by studio standards, considered a lower budget movie. This meant that every one of the thirty-one days of production was a race against the clock. Planning was crucial and execution had to be efficient. In addition, because the star of the movie is eleven years old, the production closely adhered to child labor laws no matter how restrictive they seemed. Ganis explains, “We shot a ten-hour day and most movies shoot a twelve-hour day. Three of our hours are consumed by Keke's schooling, which she must have every single day. She's in every scene. I honestly don't know how we figured it out, but we did.”

The schedule restrictions forced the writer/director into consistent pressures that can seem quite surreal, so preparation was crucial. “I storyboarded the scenes,” said Atchsion. “David Mullen, our Director of Photography, and I talked about it a lot beforehand. We came in every day knowing the enormous number of shots we needed and the performances I wanted.” Still, the challenges were immense. “The last hour of every single day was me trying to get a scene done with teachers and producers watching the clock. I've got parents of the kids around me. I've got actors around me. There we were scurrying around trying to get a scene lit.”

The story takes place in South Los Angeles which is where a lot of the film was shot. For Bassett, it was important to film here and represent the community, “Can anything good come out of South Central? Yes, of course. Something good can come out of anywhere. A flower can come out of a crack on the sidewalk. That's just what Akeelah is. Her beauty, talent and fearlessness combine to conquer that hesitation in herself and make the entire neighborhood proud of her. Each success for her is a success for them.”

Atchison was able to film at a number of locations where he always dreamed of shooting one day. “For the district bee, we shot at USC where I went to school,” says Atchison. “As a film student, I was never able to shoot in the Bovard Auditorium. So, it was extremely fulfilling to return as an alumnus and work there. We also shot at the Hollywood Palladium, which served as our Washington Hyatt Grand Ballroom for the National Spelling Bee finale, and at Venice High School, where they made “Grease,” for the District Bee.”

George Hornedo, who plays bee contestant Roman in the movie and is actually a real-life spelling bee kid, was brought in as an unofficial technical consultant to help add authenticity to the film, especially the contests. Ironically, he was also busy competing in spelling bees at the time of shooting. “While on set,” says producer Danny Llewelyn, “George was reviewing words with his paideia, which is the bible for spelling bee kids. He was reviewing all these amazing words that I’d never heard of let alone imagine spelling.”

It was important that the recreation of the spelling bee competitions be authentic. The real bee kids have certain habits and idiosyncrasies they do on stage to help them spell and those quirks had to be authentic. Having Hornedo appear in these scenes made it more natural. “He's been in front of the spotlight,” says Llewelyn, “and the idea was, originally, if we could bring a kid who had some acting chops—which George does have—then we would definitely go for it.’ Palmer concurs, “I really admire the kids who do this. George is really nice and I respect him a lot. It's hard to do school work and all these other things and then go home and practice for the spelling bees.”

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