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ARTS & CULTURE | KANSAN.COM
Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015
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Graduate's film explores plights of relationships
KATE MILLER
@_Kate Miller
VICKY DIAZ-CAMACHO/KANSAN
Wednesday at Liberty Hall
Benjamin Waller produced an 80-minute film called "The Hardest Thing to Earn" for an honors project. It premieres on Wednesday at Liberty Hall.
It's a classic story: Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy loses girl. But Benjamin Waller, a recent graduate from Alton, Ill., wanted to portray something different with his final film as a University student.
"It's a relationship movie at the core," Waller said. "It's guy meets girl, strike up relationship, and things pretty much go bad. Both these characters are very flawed; their relationship never really connects because of miscommunication. That's one of the core themes of the film."
The film, "The Hardest Thing to Earn," was created for Waller's honors project. The 80-minute feature film is one of the longest to be produced by a student within the Department of Film and Media Studies.
Waller, who wrote the script, produced, directed and edited the film, chose the title from one of his favorite quotes: "Love is the most beautiful thing to have, the hardest thing to earn, and most painful thing to lose."
"It's a drama with some awkwardly comic moments; it's a bit of a genre blend," Waller said. "I refer to the film as a dark romantic dramedy."
The film involved a cast largely of students within the film and media studies department. All cast and crew members volunteered their time to work on the film, which began shooting last October.
Waller started writing the script in July 2014.
"I wanted to make something that I could make, first of all," he said. "For this, I needed to write something that logically [I could] actually make the film on a low budget."
Although the film deals with issues of sexual assault, Waller said the prevalence of sexual assault on high school and college campuses — especially assaults involving alcohol — didn't cross his mind when he first wrote the script. As the story developed, he said he realized how important the film could be.
"[Sexual assault] is such a huge issue globally, especially
"I've always been attracted to social issues when writing. ... I just wanted to approach it on a personal level with a character-driven film."
BENJAMIN WALLER 2015 University Graduate
overseas, and it's not only accepted, but condoned," he said.
"It's just an issue that's very personal to me. I've always been attracted to social issues when writing. It's just impossible to take on such a huge subject in such a short period of time. I just wanted to approach it on a personal level with a character-driven film."
Jordyn Cox, a recent graduate from Wichita, plays the lead role of the girlfriend. "The Hardest Thing to Earn" is her first feature film appearance.
"It was a challenge at times." Cox said. "I've always really enjoyed roles that have a lot of depth to them, where you can explore not only the character's past but the character's emotions, their dreams, their fears. It was really great to have a character who is incredibly complex."
film's message, in the lead role was a key moment for Waller.
Casting Cox, who carries the
"What attracted me to Jordyn was that she looked the part and nailed the audition, but she has a very vulnerable quality about her," he said.
Waller and Cox both said the cast and crew bonded over the nine-month production process; they said those were their favorite memories.
"Making a feature film is hard," Waller said. "It's the camaraderie that really kept us going. There were lots of long days and long nights. None of us were getting paid; I've sunk thousands of dollars of my own money into it."
For Cox, the message of the film stands out more than anything else.
"It's really been an amazing opportunity that we've been
able to work as a team and make this movie about an issue that is so important." Cox said. "The hope with the film is to bring light to this issue and to have people realize this is a problem — something does need to be done about this. We really hope this film will be a way to spark that conversation."
The crew shot the film in locations around and outside the city, including the abandoned high school in Lecompton. The assistance from the Lawrence community was instrumental in the success of the film, Waller said.
"I really learned that you need the help of the community to get a film made on a low budget," he said. "Without them, it couldn't have been possible; the community was awesome."
We got all these cool locations." The film premieres at 7:30 p.m. on the Wednesday at Liberty Hall. After that, Waller hopes his work will make the film festival circuit.
"Hopefully we can get it into some respected film festivals and get it seen and get our name out there. That's really the goal," Waller said. "We're taking on a controversial issue that a lot of people want to turn a blind eye to. I kind of lay it all out there and show you exactly what these victims go through. It's not easy to watch at times, but hopefully it can change people's hearts and minds."
Edited by Emma LeGault
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