Grab your popcorn and a friend for the first Campus Activities Board (CAB) sponsored student film, “A Movie Musical.”
Rance Collins, a junior, co-wrote and produced the film with his childhood friend, Grace Whitaker, a junior at Baylor University in Texas.
Inspiration struck in the summer of 2007 when the duo saw the movie “Hairspray” in California.
“The next day on a tour bus in Hollywood we were like we should make a musical,” said Collins, who also directed, edited and acted in the film. “And here it is, one year later, and we have.”
The musical follows an Oscar-winning director, played by Collins, who is forced to make a cheesy musical starring Elvis-like matinee idol Guy Johnson, played by Matthew Landers.
“Grace and I like to break the fourth wall [by acknowledging the audience],” Collins said. “A good way to do that kind of humor is by making a movie within a movie.”
Collins’ love of Elvis musicals also helped direct the plot of “A Movie Musical.”
“Basically, we just took a bunch of classic musical numbers that we thought the audience would get into, and threw in a few random fun ones, like Clambake,” Whitaker said. She choreographed and acted in the film as well.
Characters were formed as 2007 faded into 2008, many of them based off of characters from other musicals.
“I had some … actors in mind [when I wrote the script],” Collins said. “For the most part everyone I originally talked to or wanted to play the part agreed. I had Matt Landers secured this time last year [for the Elvis role].”
Collins and Whitaker decided to condense filming into 13 days, with shooting taking place in both Texas and Arkansas.
“The hardest thing about filming in two weeks was trying to do just that,” Whitaker said. “[We had to] film an entire movie in two weeks with lines, songs, dances, a large cast and filming locations in two different states.”
Despite the rush, there was plenty of time for making new friends and memories.
“The whole experience is something I will never forget,” said Lynley Vire, who played Deena Duval, Guy’s leading lady. “It was honestly the best two weeks of my life. It’s going to take a whole, whole lot to top this experience.”
The work was not over after the filming, though. Collins still had weeks of editing to do.
“It pretty much took from the end of filming to now [to finish editing],” Collins said.
Cast member Adam Wheat helped work with CAB to show the film on campus.
“They’d been wanting to showcase more student films,” Collins said. “I came along at the right time.”
“A Movie Musical” premieres tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Performing Arts Center. The 95-minute show is free.
Baylor is not hosting a “world premiere” Whitaker said, but she plans on showing the final DVD to her friends.
“Whenever you work on something like that and make something special, you want your friends, family and complete strangers to see it,” Landers said.
Starring in “A Movie Musical” are Landers; Rachel Street; Hannah Beth Midkiff, a high school student from Cleburne, Texas; Heather Baker; Abby Adams; Wheat; Vire; Jeffrey Stokes; Trey Baldwin; Lindsey Wright-Forga; Whitaker; and Collins.
Also appearing in the movie are: Bryce Hagan, a freshman at Baylor University; Dr. Jeff Root, dean of Ouachita’s School of Humanities; Satara Whitney; Leah Nixon; Gregory Caplan, a former OBU student; Lauren Godfrey; Mike Herron, an OBU alumnus; Sarah Beth Herron, an OBU alumna; Abby Root, a Goza Middle School student; Kelly Strickland, an Arkadelphia High School student; and Amy York.
The director of photography was J.L. West. Assistant in charge of production was Gayla Whitaker, from Victoria, Texas.
“The premiere is going to be such a fun evening, and I think everyone who comes will have a wonderful time,” Vire said. “They definitely won’t be disappointed.”
