Homegrown talent

By Patricia Jiayi Ho

It was six in the morning and junior studio art and communication major Liam Boylan was up all night in the Communication Department's edit bay working on his groups film. Since class started in a mere three hours, Boylan reasoned that walking back home and then back again would be a waste of time - time that could be better spent sleeping. "So I took a seat cushion from the lobby and just crashed in the edit bay," he recalls. "It was gross."

While that night marked an all time low for Boylan, as editor of his group's 30-minute film, the bulk of his work still lies ahead. The five groups in professor Mike Whalen's upper division video production class have wrapped up filming and are now in post-production stages. Their films, a culmination of a quarter's worth of work, will be screened in the Arts and Sciences building's TV studio on June 12 at 8 p.m.

Each group consists of three or four people, each assigned specific roles such as "director," "producer" and "editor." Editors will sift through hours upon hours of footage, in some cases as much as 15 hours, narrowing selections down to make a 20 to 30 minute final product.

While things head up now for editors, producers and directors can take a breath. Boylan's group member, producer Kathryn Brinkley had started work for the class even before the quarter began. A senior communications major Brinkley had, in anticipation of the class, started adapting the Greek tragedy "Agamemnon" in December.

"I loved the play," exclaims Brinkley, who is also a minor in classics. "The general public doesn't know anything about it and I wanted to share it with everybody." To help the audience relate to it, Brinkley adapted the play to a modern setting while still using the original lines. "People always think of tragedy that is boring and dry, but I thought, what if you make it visual, make it exciting," said Brinkley, who had Baz Luhrmann's 1996 movie "Romeo and Juliet" in mind when adapting "Agamemnon." "I just basically took the play and made it into a movie," she said.

Script aside, being a producer entailed a whole other slew of responsibilities. Brinkley was in charge of pre-production, a job that involved getting actors, scouting locations, managing the budget, coordinating crew and cast schedules, making sure equipment was available, getting the props and the costumes and supervising the storyboard. "Pretty much you are the manager, making sure everybody has everything and everybody is happy," explained Brinkley.

To get actors, the group used every avenue they could: the recruit friends, sent emails to theater majors, put up notices around campus and posted listing online at Craigslist.org. Because actors are willing to work for experience to put on their resumes and video equipment can be borrowed from the communication department, expenses were kept to a minimum on things like food and props.

With logistics taken care of by the producer, the director for each group is free to focus on their jobs. For example, senior communication major Chris Morrill wrote and directed his group's film about a strained father-son relationship.

While producers struggle to orchestrate schedules, the challenge for directors is of a different nature. "[The hardest part about directing a film] is staying true to what you are trying to do and making sure that all aspects of your film reflect your purpose and the ideas that you want to get out," according to Morrill.

For senior communication major Jessica Lee, smoothing out creative differences presented the greatest challenge in directing. "It was difficult getting everyone to be on the same page when it comes to what you want," she said. "As the director, you have a certain vision as to how you want it to look and sometimes that doesn't necessarily match up with the other members of your group and sometimes it's hard to communicate that to the people you cast."

In post-production stages, editors continue the creative endeavor. "You have to trust the people you work with and understand what they want," said Thomas Gonzales, also a senior communication major. "I have until June 12 to make the audience happy, make the director happy and the producer happy." His group has been working on a romantic comedy titled, "Under Your Nose," that features a love triangle.

Despite having to pull all-nighters, deal with erratic schedules and spending ungodly amounts of time in a dark editing room, filmmaking remains an attractive career option for many. Morrill is grateful for every film-related class he can take. "There aren't that many offered here, but I've taken advantage of every one I can," he said. "For me it's sort of an artistic outlet. The capabilities of what film can do and what I can say by doing film is really what I love about it."

Senior communication major Liz Glotzbach, whose film "Chloe's Holiday" explores the relationship between two sisters, agrees. "To have something that you envisioned on screen - it's really satisfying," she said.

"You start out with a script and you go through pre-production, lighting and editing and all that, it's really nice to see it all come to life. You have something you can see and show others."