Crews for both productions (“Oasis Motel,” drama and “The Disposables,” action/comedy) of Shoot the Stars Season 3 finished shooting Friday Nov. 21. John Diehl and Laura Harring served as this season’s name talent and spoke highly of both crews. “I’m really impressed by this place,” said Diehl, mentioning the professionalism of both crews including his assistant to talent, freshman film major LaCharles Trask. “He was like my bodyguard,” explained Diehl. “I never had that as an actor.” With post production already underway, both teams will be launching their social media platforms soon. While “Oasis Motel” has finished shooting, additional scenes for “The Disposables” will be shot in January 2015. “It was very interesting working with the two different directors,” said Harring of directors Bonnie Burchfield and Peter Crowder, “They have completely different styles.” Harring played the roles of Lynn Landon in “Oasis Motel” and KiKi Nass in “The Disposables.” “I’m not treating this film any differently than any other film…” said Harring, ”and I feel like the students did the same thing....
STS Ribbon-Cutting
posted by Nicholas Beckman
With 31 days to the first shooting date of Shoot the Stars—the Film School’s student-run, union-acted program that integrates students interested in working on a film set with a real-world perspective and mentors to advise—crew members met outside the production offices to mark the “official opening production offices” for Season 3 of the program. The narrow halls of Oñate were filled with people discussing film projects of their own and the ones they were all about to embark on together. Naturally, they made their way to their respective departments; each designated a room in the building with a customized 8.5 x 11 Shoot the Stars sign hanging on the door. The art department for both “Oasis Motel” and “The Disposables” yielded conversations with mentors, story ideas and upcoming meetings for their projects, while the EPK team, when not documenting the chatter, sang sad songs of their often overlooked efforts and groundbreaking documentation of behind-the-scenes activity. Film School Chairman Chris Eyre could be seen wandering around the perimeter of the building, making hand gestures that from afar would appear to be accompanying what can only be interpreted as delightful banter. “Come, everyone!” rang Paula Amanda, Film School associate chair. Students hurried outside the building to witness the grand opening to Shoot the Stars Season 3, four weeks prior to principle photography. Amanda and Eyre gathered the producers and directors of both shoots in front of Oñate Hall. “This is the opening to the production offices—officially—and the kick off for Shoot the Stars Season 3,” said Eyre. “Now I never say a ceremony’s a ceremony until you touch the ground, so touch the ground,” he continued, prompting everyone to bend down and touch the earth. Eyre concluded his speech with a message of hope and good fortune. “Let’s just...
Prepping Oasis and Disposables
posted by Charlotte Martinez
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...
Sexy Horror
posted by Charlotte Martinez
For three nights, Oct. 25-27, the Rocky Horror shadow cast, 20 promiscuously dressed student performers, heated up the Screen with an uncensored salute to the ’70s British musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show. With fishnets, speedos, wigs and an “Oh my goodness, what am I looking at?”expression from the Rocky Horror audience, the shows acted as the perfect Halloween prelude, conjuring the horrifyingly sexy side in all of us. “You gotta have some of the biggest balls to do this show,” says Rocky Horror student director Peter Crowder, who with film major Jack Brinkley initiated the shows on campus last year. “I’m referring to this metaphorically, but if you wanted to go physically too,” Crowder continues, “you gotta be strong to put on this show because you’re gonna get flack from people who aren’t used to it, who don’t like it, but at the same time you’ll be dealing with people who love it so much and so intensely that if you don’t do it right, you’re going to get smashed and pulverized.” Crowder, who watched the shows all three nights, was able to participate as an audience member, shouting out jokes that accompanied lines in the film. As well as being liaison for the Screen, Crowder’s right-hand-man Brinkley played the part of the creepy Lurch-like character Riff Raff, “a vengeful handyman,” Brinkley says, who gets particularly crazy during the Time Warp, a dance involving pelvic thrusts. “I also liked coming out in drag with oblivion in my hand.” What’s oblivion? Brinkley laughs. “It’s a 14.5-inch dildo. During one rehearsal I said, ‘say goodbye to all of this and say hello to oblivion.’” The cast called the dildo Oblivion ever since. To get a perspective of just how crazy the show is, it may help knowing that the...
Rocky Horror Ready to Thrill
posted by Amanda Tyler
The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been a cult classic since the 1970s. Often shown in time for Halloween, the British musical comedy is most frequently played in the theater while a shadow cast pantomimes in front of the screen. SFUAD has a much shorter history with the show, with only one year of this production under its belt. Peter Crowder, a sophomore in the film department, was at the head of the show last year and decided to take the reigns again for this fall. “I wanted to make it happen, so I asked the school and they said yes,” stated the outspoken Australia native. With support from the manager of The Screen, and permission from the nightly film clubs, Crowder has nearly single-handedly pulled together this Halloween weekend event. Last year’s cast included a total of 13 students and resulted in one midnight showing. This year, Crowder began with a more serious intention. He held auditions several weeks ahead of time, requiring students to dance, as well as giving them an option to sing during their time. A third of the final cast are returners, though few are revisiting their old parts. For this weekend’s show, expect a group of 19, scantily clad in various corsets and fishnet tights. These students, from varying departments and with all levels of experience, have managed to come together and embrace their inner actor. After weeks of rehearsals, and memorization of the entire movie by this diverse group of students, the three performances will be surely be memorable. The Rocky Horror Picture Show will be presented at The Screen 11 pm Oct. 25, midnight on Oct. 26, and again at 10 pm Oct....
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