Reflections on a Teaching Career #7
Making films with students, Part 2 and some disillusionment
After the success of my short film Scotty Works OUT, I knew I wanted to work with the two lead actors, Shaun and Chris, again. I wrote another script that became a sequel called Scotty and Josh Get Enlightened, about the two characters discovering they were on opposite ends of the devout Christian to Atheism spectrum. I felt really good about the script and again brought on several DePaul and Moraine students to help with the production. Everyone huddled into the small studio condo Frank and I had bought in the city and the shoot went off perfectly.
One of the crew members, Alex, oversaw DIT, which means inputting all of the footage into files for future editing. Alex wasn’t a student of mine at the time, but he was making headway into the film scene in Chicago with various short projects. So, I’d felt pretty confident in bringing him on to work on the film. However, when the day came to edit, Alex informed me that he had accidently lost all the footage when he tried to reformat the hard drive.
This, of course, was a devastating blow especially because the shoot had gone off so well and everyone seemed really excited about the project. The only thing we could do was shoot the film all over again. Many of the crew returned. I was disappointed with a few students though who backed out for other projects leaving me with holes in the crew. Thankfully, I had other students to fill those roles and the second shoot, occurring on the first days of the Fall quarter at DePaul, went off without a hitch. (Interestingly, Alex has gone to be a celebrated independent film director on his own. We maintained a very cordial relationship after the DIT mishap.)
Scotty & Josh Get Enlightened also turned out to be successful at many LGBTQ and short film festivals. My student and cinematographer on the film, Simon, accompanied me to a couple of festivals. Simon was a joy to work with and had a great eye for shot composition.
The following year I wanted to make another film in the Scotty series but wanted to bring back several of the cast and crew from the first film who made that experience so rewarding. Another Party with Scotty was shot in our suburban home. Simon was unavailable to shoot this one but instead I got another graduate student, Eric, who was also making some noise for the projects he had been part of at DePaul. He’d also been given a staff position in the film department. Eric brought on Ryan, a favorite undergraduate student of mine, to serve as his assistant.
Other crew members had also been students. One of them, Rocco, whom I had as a student at both Moraine and DePaul, was to serve as production designer and to also play a stoned-out character in the film. Unfortunately, Rocco felt it necessary to bring real pot to the set which annoyed some of the other crew members. Also bothersome was one of the actors dropping out at the last minute requiring me to use one of the other students/crew members in a key flashback scene. Fortunately, the student, Kevin, was a real trouper and the scene didn’t suffer.
I was hearing from some of the crew that not everyone was cooperating behind the scenes though leading to some questions as to who was responsible for what on the set. While this provided for a few headaches, we managed to complete the shoot in two days. By the end of it though I began to wonder if producing these films each summer was worth it. Yes, there were a lot of students involved as actors and crew members and some of them were very good and professional in their work, but some were a bit more careless. Dropping out at the last minute and creating strife on set made me think I didn’t want to go through the experiences again.
When that film did not attention the same level of festival attention as the previous two had, I decided to change directions a bit. The following year I became a company member of Pride Films and Plays in Chicago. The organization had put out a call to writers for an LGBTQ-themed short film that the company would produce. David Zak, the creative head of the group, asked me if I wanted to direct the project. Given that I had access to equipment at DePaul and lots of students wanting to work on short films, it seemed like a natural fit. The script we agreed upon was one entitled Late by a New York writer named Kari Morris concerning two young women in the mid-twentieth century who begin saving pennies to one day either buy a Cadillac or, if possible, get married. Flashforward to present day when gay marriage became legalized, one of the women goes to tell the other the exciting news, only to realize that her partner had already passed away. Left behind were shelves lined with jars full of decades worth of pennies.
After meeting with Kari, she agreed to a change in the title to Counting as pre-production was underway. Eric, who had shot my previous short, had once again agreed to get behind the camera. Other students took over significant crew positions, including Don, a former Moraine student who would work on DIT, editing, and color. Another, David, served as second assistant director.
About a week before filming in July 2016, Eric suddenly backed out of the production for another project. Fortunately, he found an undergrad, Alan, who was also attracting some attention for his own work, to take over the director of photography role. Alan was like several DePaul students who, after a few years of success and acclaim for their college work, became a bit arrogant about their abilities. He brought along a few other students to assist him.
They were a bunch of great guys but clearly looked to Alan as their leader and director. The problem was that the group wasn’t particularly interested in working with the rest of the crew. They isolated themselves from any other input and direction and came across as unwelcoming to some of the crew, including my assistant director Kelsey who quit the project after the first day of shooting leaving David to take over her position.
Working with Alan and his crew was also a bit tough for me. Since the previous students I’d worked with were generally people I knew well, these young men were not my first choice and seemed a bit aloof and resistant to my suggestions. At one point Alan questioned why I wanted a particular shot and seemed annoyed when I felt it was necessary to complete the shot coverage for one of the scenes.
During that final day of shooting, I’d asked David to get the addresses of everyone involved in the project. I wanted to send them updates and to pay a few of them that were not students. (DePaul had a policy of not paying students because they got to work with the expensive equipment. I could pay anyone else though.) Alan refused, saying “If I do it, I’ll end up getting a bunch of mail from Pride Films and Plays.” As if that was an issue. Frankly, I found it a bit homophobic. None of his fellow student crew members agreed to provide their details either.
When we finished shooting, the typical end would be celebrated with a shot (for those over 21.) Alan and crew got in the DePaul equipment truck saying they weren’t interested and then left the location.
To say this experience turned me off to working with students I didn’t know would be an understatement. Perhaps it was unfair to think this way. Other than at least one dropout of a key crew member right before production on each of my films, most of the students I worked with were truly wonderful. Unfortunately, students graduate, and some move on to other jobs, cities, and even other careers making it hard to develop a truly consistent film team.
After four summers in a row of devoting myself to short filmmaking, I decided it was time to put the brakes on any new film productions for the time being. DePaul made this decision easier by making it more difficult for faculty to use equipment and other resources for independent projects so that students could have the first crack at it, which makes some sense for sure. They also started requiring that students hold key crew positions on such projects. After the experience with some of the Counting crew, I wasn’t interested in working with anyone but the students (or professionals) that I knew best.
Even though Counting became my most successful film on the festival circuit, winning several awards, I began re-focusing my attention outside of teaching to programming a film festival for Pride Films and Plays. I was fortunate to have one of my more hard-working and hungry former students Jairus, who had worked on Another Party with Scotty, to assist me with several of the monthly screenings.
I’ll never trade the experiences I had making films with students. These were some of the true highlights of my teaching career and I know many of these students were positively impacted by their involvement with the productions.
Next Up: New courses, Recognition, and Awards
These films were SO good and I have great memories of going to film festivals from New York to California. While the work may have been challenging at times (particularly the total reshoot of Enlightened), the end results were always wonderful. You have a great eye and it was so exciting to see you tackle each one.