ENDINGS update: Interdisciplinary

One of the pleasures of making a film in the manner in which I'm making Endings is that I get to work with students. We have a crew of about 25 Film & Digital Media students, all of whom seem very excited to be a part of the project.

But it extends beyond our own department. As I've gotten to know more and more people over my four years (and counting) at Baylor, I've been able to connect with sharp faculty from other disciplines, and because film is so collaborative and involves so many people with different skill sets, it only makes sense to make this a "crossover" experience.

Here's a sampling of people working on the film:

• from Theatre: several faculty members in the Theatre Department here are playing key roles in the film. These people are great actors, and I'm lucky to be friends with them! And our makeup/hair artist is a Theatre student with an interest in film (she's also a pretty good actress, though at the moment she's not acting in Endings.
  
• from Marketing: Baylor has a very competitive program in "Music and Entertainment Marketing," and students from that program will be doing PR and marketing work for the film this summer, including setting up opportunities for good press coverage, conducting interviews with cast and crew for an electronic press kit, and helping to maintain an "in production" web presence, with updates on progress and photos from the set. (This relationship with Marketing will likely grow into a permanent thing, and we're in discussions for some pretty big and very cool possibilities.)
  

I love bringing in people from other departments. It's a pleasure to get to know people with an interest in film, and I feel like everyone gets to stretch their creative and professional muscles and work on a real project.

Link Note: I just read this post about "the writer on the set" at TV writer Jane Espenson's blog. She's talking here about the writer's role on a TV set, which is different than on a movie set (writers in the TV world are "in charge" and directors work for them -- so, it's a different animal), but her advice resonates with me as a writer/director, so I'm linking here so I'll remember to read it again before shooting starts.