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THURSDAY AUGUST 16 2011
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Club kickstarts movie-making
EMILY BROWN
ebrown@kansan.com
The audience watches as a helicopter hovers in the air. A missile flies, hitting the house below. The house explodes.
A man lies in the front lawn, surrounded by smoke.
Behind the scenes, the helicopter is just a toy in front of a green screen. The missile was created with the help of a lens flare and the filmmaking program Adobe After Effects. The house, a doll house filled with fireworks. The smoke, just a fog machine.
This particular project created by KU Filmworks, a student organization, cost less than $100.
"To give an illusion that this was an actual action film, they used a whole bunch of stuff that we have available." Filmworks president Ian Weaver said. "It's just a lot of little tricks here and there to make it look like its a much bigger film. They did it with a bare minimum budget, and they still made it look pretty cool."
Filmworks was created in 1999 for students who were interested in video production and filmmaking. The club works on numerous video projects throughout the year, including music videos for local artists.
Most of their projects are completed on little or no budgets.
"I think we kind of push the zero dollar budget because it forces us to be a little more creative about how we approach the ideas," said Brandon Freese, the organization's vice president. "If a script calls for a building blowing up, we obviously can't blow up a real building. So, we have to find other ways of going about that."
Weaver said the cost of a film depends upon the intricacy of the script. The members of the club try to choose scripts that don't require many special or visual effects.
"We try to go with scripts that are more character pieces," Freese said.
Some club members also use websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to help raise money for film production costs. Filmmakers post their projects online, and anyone can pledge money to the project.
Associate film professor and independent filmmaker Kevin Willmott used the site Kickstarter to raise money for his upcoming film "Jayhawkers", a story highlighting Kansas basketball's history and its connection to the civil rights era.
Willmott said he had heard quite a bit about the site in the independent film circle and decided the "jayhawkers" project was a good opportunity to try it out.
The goal for the film was $50,000.
That exact amount of money had to donated within a month, or the film would receive none of the money raised on the site.
The production team advertised their Kickstarter site through social media and word of mouth.
"With this film, connected with KU basketball, we tried to connect with people who are big supporters of the team," Willmott said. "People who are not just film people but are sports people, and who would really want to see this film made."
Willmott said while he recommends Kickstarter to students wanting to raise funds for their films, the site isn't something to use haphazardly.
"I mean, we've worked on this project for a long time," he said. "So, we were very well prepared to get on Kickstarter and to use it to our advantage. Even then, it was difficult to pull it off. You've got to really sell your project and make people believe that this is a good investment. The more you can show your passion, the more you can show your dedication and the
preparation you've given to your project, the more people believe.
-Edited by Kelsey Cipolla
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Wilt Chamberlain
KU basketball player stars as Chamberlain
Kevin Willmott's film "Jayhawkers" tells the story of the recruitment and college career of famed KU basketball player Wilt Chamberlain and his relationship with legendary coach Forrest "Phog" Allen. As an African-American player in a segregated community, Chamberlian's faced challenges in Lawrence and college basketball that mirrored civil rights issues all over the country.
The film stars junior basketball player Justin Wesley as Wilt Chamberlain and Nathan Peterson, a senior from Topeka, as a young Phog Allen, Kip Niven, a graduate of the University, will portray an older Flog Allen, and Blake Robbins will play Dick Harp, the coach who takes over for Allen. Robbins spent time in Lawrence during the shooting of "The Sublimie and Beautiful," a film he wrote, directed and starred in.
Filming was scheduled to begin on Aug. 15, according to KU Athletics.
—Kelsey Cipolla
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hugo Navarro paints in a 5-by-9-foot jail cell that serves as his studio at 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios in southwest Detroit. The cell is part of a jailhouse that was closed by the city in 2005 as part of a city-wide reorganization effort.
Renovation project turns jail into studios, galleries
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — For Hugo Navarro,
the 5-by-9 foot jail cell that serves
as his studio in southwest Detroit
is an admitted creepy place to
immerse himself in his work.
Unlike jailhouse artists who find creative inspiration behind bars, however, the 56-year-old is there by choice.
He paints at 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios, a decade-old arts organization that this year moved into its new home in the Detroit Police Department's former Third Precinct station.
"I didn't really have anything in mind before going to my jail
The city closed the building in 2005 as part of a department-wide reorganization, and the former lobby where residents once could walk in to report crimes now is an airy gallery.
Detectives' offices now serve as classroom and studio space. And potentially claustrophobic cells — bars still on their doors — are fostering creativity.
cell,” said Navarro, whose colorful paintings of Detroit's shuttered Michigan Central Depot and fires gutting homes adorn some of the cells near where he's worked for the past few months. “I just let myself go and let my inside do the work.”
The Third Precinct renovation is among a handful of projects nationwide converting old police facilities, including one in Chicago that is becoming live theater venues and one in Philadelphia that is being converted into homes.
555 is leasing its new home from Southwest Housing Solutions, a nonprofit community developer that bought the former precinct in 2009 and spent about $2 million on the project.
Garage space at the building houses Detroit Farm and Garden, a gardening, farming and landscape supply store.
"It's exactly what we wanted it to be," said Tim Thorland, the developer's executive director. "The great thing about the gallery space is that it's a continuous work
in progress."
In Philadelphia, the former 26th Precinct Police Station, which sat vacant for years, is being renovated with the upper floors as apartments, said architect Victor Barr Jr. of VLBIR Architects Inc.
In Chicago, the Griffin Theatre Company acquired a former police station and plans to start construction in September on the first of two live performance spaces.
The building's large cells are too massive to remove, said William Massolia, a founding member, so they'll be used to house a green room, dressing rooms and a box office.
"We're going to be using some of what was there and not disguise the fact that it was a police station and a jail." Massolia said.
At 555, an official opening event is planned for Sept. 14 and the building is a work in progress.
In years to come, part of a second floor that once was home to a locker room used by officers could become a dance studio.
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