Media LLC uses free time to make a movie
Media LLC students collaborate on film about futuristic dating.
Students in the Media Living Learning Center share similar interests and goals, and several put this to work recently when they collaborated to produce a film about dating.
Freshman Sam Oates, for one, had wanted to make a film with even back when he applied to live in the Media LLC, a resident hall floor dedicated to students who opt for membership.
Once he arrived in August, he started his campaign for a film. Eventually, freshman Spencer Bowman agreed to write the script over winter break. Because of the diverse talents on the floor, including game design, writing and filmmaking, other students found it hard to pass up the opportunity to collaborate.
“The Media LLC is completely the reason why this ever happened. Without it, we would have never known each other,” Bowman said. “There would have never been this tight community from freshman year.”
The Media LLC attracts students with various majors who have an interest in media in some form. While most are Media School students, others come from other schools. For example, Bowman is a media major pursuing a career in screenwriting. Oates is a computer science major with a love of film and filmmaking.
In addition to living on the same floor, the students have a small budget to fund travel to media organizations in New York each year and often take classes together.
But this film was outside class. Once they knew they wanted to make a film, the brainstormed about the topic. After a conversation in the floor lounge with their friends one night, Oates and Bowman decided to make a film inspired by one of the floor’s favorite shows, Black Mirror.
Their film, Repopulate, is set in an alternate reality in which people stop having children because the internet takes over all face-to-face interaction. To combat this, the government creates a dating app with a dark secret that encourages people to meet and have discussions in real life.
“We just picked a story, and then we said ‘Hey we have a story we want to make it, anyone that wants to help come talk to us,’” Bowman said.
Both said they were encouraged by their idea becoming such a collaborative process. Between the film’s cast, crew and people helping the overall production, about 40 people worked with them on the film.
Through some networking with people on the floor, they found a house at Lake Lemon where they were allowed to film for an entire weekend. They used some floor funds for things like lighting and food for the crew. They also formed the production company B6 Films (named in honor of Media LLC’s floor, Forest-B6) and have future projects in the works.
“Everyone did it for essentially no reason,” Bowman said. “There was no immediate payoff other than helping your friends out and wanting to create something.”
“That was probably the biggest highlight for me,” Oates said.
The film is currently in post-production and plan to have the film done in mid-April. They hope to showcase it on the big screen in The Media School in the fall.
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