Click on picture to start the movie trailer.
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Senior mass communications major Daniel Santoy is filming an original movie this semester, just because he can.
Santoy’s first movie was a short horror film, made during his freshman year. He and a group of friends decided to try out his new video camera and his computer’s movie-making software.
He has also filmed videos for the Organic Chemistry class and a variety show for a friend who transferred.
Two years after his first film, armed with a better camera and better software, he is back in the business of making original movies.
This semester Santoy and a cast of current and former Ouachita students are making a full-length film — roughly just more than an hour.
“I wanted to make something that was actually good,” Santoy said.
Originally they had planned to shoot two films this semester, but due to the complexity of people’s schedules the film-adaptation of student Mike Kizzar’s “Fifteen Minutes” has been pushed back to next semester.
“Fifteen Minutes” was written for the Ten Minute Play Festival last year and will have the fastest “theater–to–film transition ever,” Santoy said.
Santoy’s fiancée, former student Emily Key is also thinking about turning it into a book.
Key helped adapt “Fifteen Minutes” for the screen.
The cast is already chosen and the script written, so next semester it should take off in a hurry.
The as-yet-untitled spy film in production this semester is going full steam ahead.
The cast shoots about 10 hours a week and Santoy tries not to shoot any two people for more than two hours per week.
While Santoy was vague about the plotline — not wishing to ruin the movie — he did say it is a “spy movie with a little bit of comedy and a little bit of romance.”
The story is about two brothers who are spies. The brothers, Patrick and Kevin Fry, are pitted against villains Tracy Watts and Rebecca Bun.
“It’s very morality playish, good versus evil and all that fun stuff,” Santoy said.
Patrick and Kevin are played by Kizzar and Andrew Pyle. Tracy Watts and Rebecca Bun are played by Amelia Buckmaster and Lurelee Doleshal.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Kizzar said about his role as Patrick. “It’s definitely different from anything else I’ve done with Daniel.”
While his favorite part is the planned action scenes that are “more action intense and full-action movie” oriented, Kizzar said the whole experience has been fun.
“I’m getting to do the thing every kid dreams of — be an action star,” Kizzar said.
His co-star, Doleshal, also enjoys her film-debut role as Rebecca Bun.
“I definitely enjoy filling Becca’s shoes,” Doleshal said. “She comes with some neat character-developing plot twists, and at least one very, very, spiffy ability.”
Many of Santoy’s actors in this film have little to no acting experience. However, “they’re remarkably good for the lack of experience,” Santoy said.
The movie is based on Santoy’s own script, which he said was not that difficult to write.
“It’s easy once you get started,” Santoy said. “[But] if you take breaks from it, it’s harder to start up again.”
The script has gone through several revisions, as cast members and friends have read it and made changes.
“I wrote it, loved it, thought it was the greatest thing ever [written],” Santoy said. But when he e-mailed it to the cast, “they had some corrections and questions.”
Santoy’s favorite part of the process?
“It’s watching characters I had in my head come to life,” he said.
Doleshal said Santoy keeps her up to date on his video editing, and she’s “super-duper excited to see the final product.”
“Daniel’s doing a lot of good work,” Kizzar said. “It’s cool to see all he’s doing. It’s unbelievable. You have a hard time believing it’s a college movie.”
