Film students prepare for their premiere

Mark Scheibmeir: It’s a team effort. It really is. There’s so many different roles on set and a lot of the time, from an outsider’s perspective, we only hear about particular roles like either the director or the cinematographer, but there’s so many other positions too. A big goal this year that I’ve been talking about is film as a team — just like a sports team. You wouldn’t march out on the football field with just a quarterback and running back on the team. 

MS: I do think we’re kind of really doing something a little bit new here. And so especially with certain aspects, like doing casting, dividing up the roles and making sure that everybody is a part of the same project. This serves as a model for how to go forward, because they may not have considered all these things before — the costumes, the casting, the sound, the cinematography, the food on set, and lighting. There’s just a lot to consider. 

MS: What I like to do is have a flagship project for both the advanced and honors classes. One of the things that we did early on in the semester is all the students formed small teams of two and created pitch decks. I took those pitch decks, and I gave them to people in the entertainment industry — friends of mine — in Los Angeles. And I had them rank the projects. Two projects [including Til’ Death] were chosen. So it wasn’t me picking people who are writers, directors and producers. I’d like to do it every year because I think it’s fun. It’s also a little competitive, and it continues to build the idea of our team. Because I really do feel that way. We’re a team. Just like soccer or football, it takes a lot of time and effort to make something quality that you feel good about putting out.

 

Andrew Kogan ’23: We filmed in one location, and it is pretty much just one scene. It’s a comedy about a newly deceased couple who go to a marriage counselor in heaven. They go to dispute their wedding vows, specifically the “‘til death do us part” vow. It turns out the only thing the couple can really agree on is how horrible the therapist is. It’s not super action based — it’s more nuanced and focused on character growth through dialogue. There are not a lot of moving parts in terms of big set pieces or big action scenes. 

AK: Hayden Myers and I co-wrote and are co-directing the screenplay, along with advice and help from Mr. Scheibmeir.  

AK: Mr. Schiebmeir showed us these two websites called Actors Access and Breakdown Express. They are real talent services that are used in professional productions. We posted a casting call with information about our project. We shared that the film was a student short film, not-for-profit, and descriptions of the four roles. From there, we went into auditions, where we sent out script excerpts for the applicants to have a virtual audition. We had four character roles up. In total, we had 77 local actors express interest. We narrowed that down after they sent in auditions, ultimately picking the best four for our film.  

AK: As they say, it takes a village. From the very beginning, Mr. Schiebmeir wanted everyone to be involved. Everyone will be there for both of the shoot dates next week. Everyone pitched ideas and worked to improve the script after we decided the film topic. Seeing everyone in their own department come together on an active film set makes you feel like you are part of something bigger than yourself. It isn’t a one-man job, we wouldn’t be here without each member of the class.  

AK: The most interesting aspect Mr. Scheibmeir brings to the table is how he actually has experience being an actor and director. It’s really cool how he brings that knowledge to class every day. You can just talk about what you can do on when on the set, but to actually be guided by someone who has experience directing a set, someone with the first-hand experience makes that incredibly valuable.