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Wednesday, August 24, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Sue Schellie Special to the KANSAN
Ron Simmonian, Overland Park senior, playing Melvin in "Melvin Loses Weight," jumps over Tim DePaeage, Emporia senior, while DePaeage film a scene for the movie.
Student filmmakers lighten heavy subject
Bv Debbie Bengtson
Kansan staff writer
Martha, jogging around the pond, spies a young man lying on his back. From his brightly colored sweatspants, she concludes he is yet another victim of the jogging craze. He is breathing but doesn't look good. She asks it
"Yeah," Melvin says, as he lies on the ground, weak from the workout. "Why...don't I look all right?"
"Cut!" yells the director. "This is all wrong, Jenny Martha has just stopped jogging. You can be out of bed and see your dog."
It's not the new Meryl Streep film being directed by Mike Nichols. It's "Melvin Loses Weight," an 11-minute film made by University of Kansas students, filmed this summer on campus.
The film is about Melvin a love-struck guy desperately trying to lose weight at the command of his overly
"I in the end, Melvin loses the weight," said David Yonally, Overland Park senior, who wrote and directed the film. "But it is not physical weight he loses, it's mental weight. He gets out of a destructive relationship."
Melvin jigs to lose weight and meets Martha, also jogging to lose weight for her boyfriend.
"Everyone can identify with trying to lose weight." "Yeaally said, and also being in a destructive relation," he added.
Tim DePace, Emporia senior produced the film. He said "Melvin Loses Weight" was originally produced on video. The response was so good that he and Yonally decided to make it a film.
The film is made independent of the University by DePere and Voynich.
Yonally said the film was a huge step technically and
dramatically. They used a 16mm double system. The 16mm is smaller than that of feature films, but the same type of zoom is used in them.
DePieper and Yonally have worked on five other projects together, including a fake commercial. "The Nice Girls Don't Explode," which was filmed in Lawrence two years ago. But they said this project was
"I am so confident about how this will turn out that we could enter it in any festival," and Yonllah. "And we
Ron Simonian, Overland Park senior, plays the overwrought Melvin. He said he had a lot of experience on the field.
Simonian said he enjoyed working with Yonally and DePapee "This is the first time I can honestly say that DePapee has been my best friend."
Shannon Broderick, Leawood senior, plays the napping girl friend, Michelle. She said she enjoyed playing the role because Michelle so much different from herself.
"I don't worry about my weight, and Michelle was blinded by this losing weight obsession," she said.
Broderick said that the University didn't allow a lot of experience in film, yet in the past two years it had started to produce.
"Any experience for a college student is great," she said. "Getting your feet wet in film is a valuable resource."
Martha, the young woman Melvin falls in love with, is played by Jenny Barrick of Overland Park. She plans to attend the University of Arizona or a university in New York, where she will be this is her first time working with DePpe and Yonah.
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