In April 1999, Columbine High School senior Andrew Robinson felt like the world was at his feet. He was the school's prized actor who had just auditioned for Julliard. He wrote and directed the spring theatre production, in which he co-starred with fellow student Rachel Scott. The cast and crew were celebrating a successful run of the play and were striking the set the morning of April 20.

Later that morning, Robinson was in the computer lab when the fire alarm went off. The students thought it was a drill or a prank; they slowly left the classroom. That's when they saw students running in a panic and shouting that someone had a gun.  

He survived by running outside. But in the next hours that devastated the community and stunned a nation that watched the tragedy unfold, Robinson would find out that his friend Rachel did not. 

"It was tough," said Robinson, who was shocked after having spent time with her moments earlier. "She was the one I was closest to of all the victims ... It was difficult to grapple with," Robinson said.

After that, his entire worldview shifted. 

"When you're 17 you think you're pretty invincible," he said. "And on April 20, I realized I wasn't."

It's the story of the aftermath that Robinson focuses on in the movie "April Showers," a fictionalized account of a school massacre he wrote and directed based on his experience of the Columbine tragedy.

"April Showers" will be released in select theaters on Friday and will be available for download through IndieFlix.com and iTunes starting May 5.

Though "April Showers" is not meant to be a direct portrayal of the Columbine tragedy, the movie contains several allusions to the events on April 20th.

Tom Arnold ("Happy Endings," "Gardens of the Night") plays Martin Blackwell, a beloved teacher who is shot while ushering students to safety. Similar to real-life victim and teacher Dave Sanders, he dies in a classroom while waiting for the paramedics. In his last moments, he focuses on photos of his family from his wallet.

The movie's main characters also have parallels to Columbine victims and survivors. Like Robinson, lead character Sean Ryan (Kelly Blatz, "Prom Night") is involved in the school's drama department. His love interest, April Lauren (Ellen Woglom), is a beautiful girl whose spirituality guides her life. Like Columbine victim Rachel Scott, she dies outside and leaves behind several journals that give survivors hope. And although producer Jenna Edwards says that no single character is based on one real-life victim or survivor, the movie "April Showers" is similar to the title of the book written about Rachel's life, "Rachel's Tears."

He also draws on his own experiences to delve into the struggle of survivors that knew the gunman. 

"There are characters in the movie that go through the devastation that everyone else is going through, but they get the double whammy of losing a friend, and knowing that friend is responsible. That's a storyline that a lot of my friends experienced and one that I think the public doesn't take into consideration," he said. 

But the character of the shooter is only shown through the lens of security cameras or brief news clips, an intentional move by Robinson to keep the focus on the survivors, not the gunman. 

"We witness it through the eyes of those who survive it. You're hearing things go on off-camera, you're watching the facial reactions of the students, but the killer's not really a character," he said. "He exists off camera or through how other people speak about him ... We filmed it that way to curb that idea."

 

The filming of "April Showers" introduced the realities of the Columbine tragedy to many actors who were too young to remember the event. Daryl Sabara ("Spy Kids") was only 6 when the attacks occurred, but remembers the impression the news coverage made on him.

Before the filming, he was surprised to learn that most of his peers had never heard of Columbine. 

"The day before I got my script, I had a presentation at my school about Columbine called Rachel's Challenge. And the thing was, when we were all going to sit for the assembly, I heard a whole bunch of kids around me saying, 'What's Columbine?'" he said. "[The presentation] was so moving ... Usually, students are really noisy at assemblies but at this one, everyone was silent."

The movie was filmed in Nebraska starting in May 2008 at Plattsmouth High School; most of the extras are students from that school. Robinson said that staging the shooting and having the extras experience the recreation of events was the toughest part of filming.

"What was difficult for me was having the extras who were real high school students, having to put them through it, even if in fantasy or make-believe, having to watch their reactions because their reactions were very real," he said. "They weren't really pretending. We did a really good job trying to recreate it as much as we could while keeping it safe. Watching them go through that, seeing their faces, brought me back to the faces my friends were making."

Robinson says he hopes audiences will take away from the movie what he took away from his experiences 10 years ago.

"Make sure people know where they stand with you and vice versa," he said. "The past cannot change and today is but a gift, how you handle tomorrow is what's going to matter most."  

Before the credits roll, the names of all the victims of U.S. school shootings since the 1960s silently scroll on the screen -- a reminder that for Robinson, as well as far too many others who have lost someone to a school shooting tragedy, his lesson was learned at a high price.