Super-senior Chris Parcher and junior Kyle Acker premiered their thriller, “Sam,” Thursday afternoon in the Multimedia Lab on campus.
The audience composed of students, staff, actors, and faculty experienced the culmination of the duo’s semester-long work.
Neither had extensive production experience. They knew the basics of shooting and editing from TV 1 class, but “learning how to put that all together and to tell a story with a character arc was a new process,” stated Parcher.
They also overcame many other obstacles. Parcher explained they had no budget and “relied heavily on the actors to bring props and clothing.”
Filming occurred according to their actors’ and business locations’ schedules. “At the bar, we had two hours to set up, shoot, and tear down,” said Parcher.
More time constraints became apparent as they test drove shooting digitally with Canon DSLRs. “In Hollywood, there is a 6-point shoot ratio. You shoot six times as much footage as you are actually going to use. For us, it 
was different.” Eventually, they found a system that worked best for them.
Mark Newcom, their professor and advisor for the project, thought “Chris and Kyle took ownership of this project from its inception. It’s a joy working with inspiring producers who have a passion for learning the improving their craft. This project sealed my acceptance of DSLR’s as a viable format for film production.”
For students currently working in film, Parcher has simple advice, “Do pre-production, really do pre-production. Again, we were told and didn’t do it.” He thinks shooting would have gone much faster if their shot list was completely full.
Acker advised, “Don’t be afraid to do something because you feel like you are going to mess up. In the industry, you have to be commercial and sell. As a student, you can put your stamp on it however you want.”
Acker is continuing to make films his senior year. Parcher is graduating this month and embarking on full-time work as a Webmaster for a company in Fertile, Iowa.