While discussing the integral role networking has in the film industry—a point he would continue to emphasize throughout the rest of his interview with Jackalope Magazine—Film School Chair Chris Eyre readied his computer to unveil his latest directing gig: a drunk driving PSA for the Wyoming Board of Transportation spearheaded by Wyoming First Lady Carol Mead. Eyre had just returned to Santa Fe from the Sundance Film Festival, where he served as both a Film School liaison to the festival as well as an alumnus, having received the Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy Award in 1998 for his film Smoke Signals. “It’s important to maintain the network and then bring it back to the Film School,” Eyre explained, going on to mention a casual run-in he’d had with Peter Farrelly, an old friend. On Jan. 17, Eyre’s crew, consisting of (many) Film School students, shot the 30-second Drunk Driving PSA in a single day. “We had a budget here so we paid everyone for their time.” Eyre chuckled, motioning to his computer screen displaying his portfolio of work. “That’s why we’re all here.” Eyre played two other PSAs he had done in 2008 for the state of New Mexico. Similar to his recent work, the NM spots carried a vignetted style that plays like a 30-second feature film. ‘The way that I shoot, you know, I’m always making a movie out of something,” he said. The PSA hosted various paid positions for faculty, students, local acting talent and area film workers, including 13 students, one Film School alumnus and four faculty contributors. Film School Chair Paula Amanda served as producer, alum Seth Fuller was a camera operator and post-production efforts were handled by sophomore film student and Redford Scholar Alec Brown, with color-correcting and sound-mixing by Mark Sewards and Brad Wolfley—both full-time faculty members. “The grip department definitely knew their stuff,” said senior film student Tyler Sherek, who served as a grip/electric production assistant on the shoot, “the stress level was near non-existent.” “I use all different crews…” Eyre said when asked about his process in formulating a team. “There’s a lot of talented people out there.” He expanded by saying he seeks out team members that are more skilled than he. “It’s not always about your tight network of friends, you know, it’s about who makes the best product.” Eyre spoke about his work with reknowned cinematographers Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi), Elliot Davis (Twilight) and most recently Santa Fe resident Dyanna Taylor (North Country) with whom he collaborated on with this particular PSA.  “I have worked with Chris on a project in LA in the past,” said Taylor of her past experiences with Eyre. “Because of his excellent reputation and the various Native American film projects I’ve DPd, our paths have crossed at various times.” Taylor began her career in San Francisco roughly 30 years ago and has since worked on projects across the world, including Africa, Europe and New York City, creating films for ABC, National Geographic and Discovery Channel. She believes that student jobs like these are essential to advancing in the film industry and shed some tips for budding filmmakers.  “Working professionals remember you if you were attentive, worked well and easily and demonstrated your intentions,” explained Taylor, noting her admiration for the students participation. “The students were attentive and fun to have there. My only regret was that I couldn’t spend more time with...

Following selections of Shoot the Stars third season scripts “Oasis Motel” (written by Julie Wittrock) and “The Disposables” (written by Keegan Moore and Dylan Hamilton-Smith), The Film School has recently announced the directors and producers of the ambitious two-day shoot scheduled for November. After interviews with Department Chair Chris Eyre and production mentor Hank Rogerson, Bonnie Burchfield—a senior film major and co-producer of last year’s “Mister Stapleton”—will direct “Oasis Motel,” a contemporary drama with a strong female lead. And Peter Crowder, senior film major, will tackle the “Enter the Dojo” web series spinoff titled “The Disposables.”  “It wasn’t a script that was submitted,” Crowder says, explaining the circumstances of “The Disposables” selection. In the past, scripts have been chosen from a pool of student submissions, usually one drama and one comedy. “It was an idea that the school had,” Crowder explains, “a marketing move a bit.” Because College of Santa Fe alum Matt Page has gained wide viewership on his “Enter the Dojo” web series (about the world of an American karate school taught by Matt Page’s character Master Ken), Crowder explains that The Film School was hoping for Page’s “followers” to become aware of Shoot the Stars, while Shoot the Stars would provide an unique opportunity for “Enter the Dojo.” So while the branding of Page’s web series remains consistent, the Shoot the Stars team would have creative rights to an original Dojo offshoot. In preparation for writing a script, Crowder explains that the new Shoot the Stars class watched “Enter the Dojo: 100 Ways to Kick the Groin” in order to “get a feeling” of Page’s style. Consequently, film students Dylan Hamilton-Smith and Keegan Moore (the Dylan and Keegan comedy duo as they’re known in The Film School) wrote a fitting short called “The Disposables.” “If you remember The Expendables,” Crowder says, “about a group of aging action heroes…that could be an [inference] of the title of our project.” Regarding the writers of “The Disposables,” Crowder adds, “they’re absolutely hilarious people.” Despite working closely with Page in branding consistency, Crowder says that the Shoot the Stars team won’t be creating another web series episode, but a “little feature[tte] of what is Master Ken’s life outside of the Dojo.” And though Page’s Master Ken character will be key in the original script, the required Shoot the Stars guest actors (an unidentified 40-year-old woman and 50-year-old man) will also appear in the story. “The script is in motion, it’s fluid and subject to change,” Crowder says. Meanwhile, he prepares for his shoot by analyzing the script and solidifying the “look” of the film. As far as an artistic vision, it helps that Crowder’s range of filmmaking is so diverse. Able to “play with the cheesy and funny action films” to the “bad B movies,” Crowder says he has experience in working with heavy visuals as well as heavy dialogue. And running, for example, SFUAD’s Rock Horror Picture Show on campus for the third year running has made “working with other people” his speciality. “If a script is intentionally bad or even unintentionally bad,” Crowder muses, “there is an opportunity to make it a great movie. It’s so much fun to do that!” Supporting Crowder as co-producers in “The Disposables,” juniors Matthew Krekeler and Anastasia Gendelman have already begun planning for the November shoot. This week, the producers will hold, for example, interviews for positions like director of photography, cinematographer and production designer (a position which Gendelman assisted in last year and says is a “totally different realm” than producing). “Producers should be able to find the right people,” Krekeler says. As previous locations manager for Shoot the Stars, Krekeler knows the importance of “building a team,” a task which Krekeler and Gendelman have found simple due to the “passion” encountered in their “awesome interviews” thus far. With the addition of a Shoot the Stars class, Krekeler and Gendelman say they have started interviews and meetings early this year and have procured, thanks to Film School Assistant Chair Paula Amanda, “Longmire’s” old office space in Onate Hall. They hope to utilize the space for production meetings, storyboarding, scheduling, etc. “It adds to the real world experience,” Krekeler says. Bonnie Burchfield, director of “Oasis Motel,” is also grateful...