While most individuals think of a pencil as just a writing utensil, 12 students in a communication capstone class perceived it as a way to portray an emotional and complex journey that holds meaning far beyond the slim, yellow No. 2 pencil.
In David Sholle's COM 414C capstone class, the students created and produced a short film called Written Off in spring 2008.
Twelve ambitious and creative minds collaborated for the project, which received Honorable Mention from the Ohio Valley chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) in the 2009 Student Production Award category.
In addition to receiving the honorable mention at the Regional Emmys, the film was also a featured at the 2009 Rochester International Film Festival this past summer.
Most of the undergraduates have since graduated from Miami University, but the summer festival acknowledged works that were completed in 2008. Cameron Berner, the film's director, came up with the original idea for the story, and the class worked together to make the vision a reality.
After graduating with a double major in mass communication and interdisciplinary studies, Berner is now living in New York City and attending the New York Film Academy.
"At that point in your academic career, you don't really learn anymore," Berner said. "It's a senior capstone class so you are putting to use everything that you spent the last three or four years learning. This gave us real world experience."
The students received legitimate production experience because they had to film everything in just one weekend.
After the script had been finalized, the locations for shooting were established, and the cast was chosen. The weekend was intense with filming from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day.
Pulkit Datta, the film's producer, is also currently living in New York and attending New York University for film studies.
"We had a very tight schedule and had to get everything done within that time frame," Datta said. "The most fun for me was just watching this project come to life from paper to actual film."
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Datta's responsibilities entailed making sure all crew members were on task, running frequent production meetings and getting funding for the movie.
Funding came from the Miami department of communication, the Miami University Parent's Fund and the Western College Program.
"There were a lot of hoops and legal burdens we had to overcome," Berner said.
In terms of getting releases signed, Talawanda High school - where filming took place - was open and supportive of the film.
"Through this class, I met other students who were just as passionate about filmmaking and connecting with those creative minds on this project was a great experience," Datta said. "The actual learning process was also great. We wrote and talked about the characters for so long that actually seeing the actor was awesome."
Emphasizing that the film was a group effort, Berner said the class came together at the beginning of the semester, focused on making a festival-worthy film, and followed through.
"It was a really amazing experience overall," Berner said. "My whole point in going to Miami was to become an actor and to understand filmmaking in its entirety."
Once the filming was wrapped up, mainly two people were involved in post-production. One member of this duo was Dan Battistone, director of photography and editing.
He said he loved the class and most enjoyed that everything was broken down as if it was an actual production.
"It was the perfect combination of my undergrad experience," Berner said. "It allowed me to blend the use of leadership, filmmaking, camera angles, story boards and all I had learned from my English classes. It was perfect example of what a capstone should do."
The film can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com by searching "Miami University Written Off."
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