Lights, camera, action!

For the first time in its history, GCC has begun production on an exclusive feature film, “Roomates,” slated for release in the fall.

Development for this project began in November 2009 and script writing followed in December.

Nick Weber, a film major and the film’s director, and Madylin Sweeten, who is cast as Mary for the film, worked together to come up with an original idea for the plot. They are co-writers of the script.

Weber is also president of the Summer Feature Club, which will be very active in the production process of the film.

Sweeten previously starred as Ally in the CBS sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” and played the role of Becky in “Eagle Eye.”

“We just bounced different ideas off of each other, trying to make each other laugh, and a story slowly started to form,” Weber said. “We took real life experiences we had, and mixed them into the story.”

The plot of the film follows the lives of two roommates, Mary and Jack, who have very opposite personalities. Due to their personal circumstances, the two eventually attempt to get the other to move out, and a prank war ensues.

The plot of the story takes several unexpected twists and turns, but the production team requested that details be withheld.

The script is nearly complete and Weber expects to have a final draft ready for storyboarding within the next month or so. However, a rough draft is currently available, though it has yet to be completed or revised, in order to get people familiar with the concept and to assist in preproduction.

Members of the club have been busy attending to various administrative tasks in the preproduction process, including creating a club logo, designing posters for the movie, searching for apartments to in which to shoot scenes and assigning jobs for the actual production stage of the film.

Filming for “Roomates” is scheduled to take place over the upcoming summer. In order to meet its release deadline, Weber said that the filming will be done six days per week, eight to 12 hours a day.

The club welcomes students and faculty who would like to participate in this feature, regardless of skill level or experience.

“The only thing we require of participants is that they be dedicated to the project,” Weber said. “If you don’t know anything [about the filming or production process], that’s fine, we will teach you.”

Weber added that, “Helping make a feature film is the experience of a life time. You learn so much and develop strong friendships and contacts for future projects. Also, participants will have their names attached to the project and will receive a copy of the film when finished.”

At present the club is looking for people to fill the positions of assistant director and production coordinator. Other available positions include photographers (to help with preproduction, onset documentation and cast and crew photos), chefs (to cook meals for the cast and crew on production days), musicians (to compose original music for the soundtrack) and artists (to take responsibility for promotion, including the design posters and DVD artwork).

Ultimately, the goal of the club is to showcase the completed film at several small festivals, as well as to the Sundance Festival. Weber said that they would also like to try to get a DVD release set up with rental companies like Blockbuster and Netflix.

The club does not intend to release the film immediately after it is done being edited so that there is ample time to promote it.

Weber and Sweeten have invested in the project to help finance it. The feature club is also relying on the money it has received from the student government, and is planning to fundraise to cover production costs.

Students currently enrolled in Media Arts 104 may receive credit for participating in this production if they have significant roles in the process, while students enrolled in Media Arts 103 may receive extra credit for participation in the production.

The feature film club meets on Mondays at noon in SG 334. Anyone interested in taking part in the project is invited to attend the meetings.

Further inquiries can be made via e-mail at [email protected].