http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFbwCyd9YqQ&feature=youtu.be
Students at New Mexico State University are taking finals this week, and some students in the university’s Creative Media Institute are taking a final that could one day help them land a job.
Outside La Posta de Mesilla restaurant, an old bus navigates down the street for the final shot of an independent film that is being produced.
The film, “The Heart Outright,” is written by Tony Award-winning playwright Mark Medoff, it’s also a sequel to Medoff’s play, “When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?”
This feature film is serving as the final for an independent film class being taught at NMSU’s Creative Media Institute.
Ross Marks serves not only as Director of the film, but he is also teaching the independent film course. He says prior to this course he did seek advice from some successful independent film producers.
“It all came down to the same thing, which is you just do it, you find a way to make the movie.” says Marks.
Students learned about the whole process of what it takes to make an independent film. From trying to raise funds on Kickstarter.com to working long production days, Marks says these students are getting something even more valuable once they complete the course.
“They are going to graduate from New Mexico State University with a feature film credit, which is so difficult to obtain, but yet they were able to achieve it as an undergrad. So, I’m really proud of what they’ve done, they’ve done an amazing job working on this film,” says Marks.
One of the many Creative Media Institute students working on set is Nathañelle Sowell who was assigned to costume design for the movie. She has worked on many short student films. She shares what she is going to take away from this feature filmmaking experience.
“It’s really nice to be able to come on set and see everything that’s going on. You’re not just in a class and they’re saying this is what is what you’re going to do if you were in this department, or this is what you do if you were on set. It’s nice to be able to have that hands on activity, and learn from everybody,” says Sowell.
Producer Dave Witt, himself a NMSU Creative Media Institute graduate says he combines his education with his military background to help keep everything running on time.
“I was in the military for seven years, I was a sergeant, I was in charge of a lot of people, and that’s all a film set is. It’s long hours, with people you kind of go to war with them, because a film set is long hours, a lot of stuff happens, you have to adapt the whole time, and the mission is to get through the day on schedule. So all of the previous experience I had just made me a better film person in the first place,” says Witt.
Witt says CMI students can gain industry insight from the number of number of film professionals working on the film.
“We had industry professionals in department head positions, or higher positions with at least 1,2,3,4,5,6 students underneath them so that they would be able to learn how it actually is done," says Witt.
Witt hopes students working on this film will grow into experienced filmmakers, he says that could help attract more feature films to Southern New Mexico.