Reported By: Jacques Masangkay
On March 19, 2022, University of Guam students in the Independent Filmmaking class began filming one of their student films. The films produced in the class are set to premiere at this semester’s upcoming film festival.
The film being produced is a drama thriller called “The Run”, set on Guam, that follows the story of a young man currently running away from a conflict that happened in his life.
Under the supervision of Dr. Raymond Anderson, filming began with a tech rehearsal, where the crew and actors rehearse a few selected scenes to act out and get more familiarized with the technical aspects of the film. Tech rehearsals are mainly for the crew, but actors also benefit from getting a chance to get more acquainted with their surroundings on set. In this case, it was everyone’s first time on the set location for the film, which was both challenging and a good learning experience for both the actors and crew.
“It’s my first time producing a film and it’s been very stressful so far, but I like it. I like knowing what’s going on- it’s just a little hard to put all the parts in motion since we’re dealing with a bigger team than we’re used to, but it’s a good experience because if we’re going to go into this career field, we’ll be dealing with much bigger teams so it’s a good experience right now.” Producer Kyra Perez explained.
Working closely with the producer is the director, Kin Guerrero, in charge of the more creative aspects of the film such as the actors’ performances.
“I’ve never done anything like this before, and I think it’s really fun to work with the actors and try to squeeze out the performances that we want. Sometimes I do feel a lot of pressure, but I’m looking forward to everything and I trust we’ll be able to produce something we’ll be proud of.” Guerrero said.
The role of director can be especially stressful at times due to the immense responsibility and having to make decisions that will impact the film, but it also has the potential to be very rewarding. The feeling of accomplishment after seeing a film finally comes to life when production is done is truly inspiring and is a feeling many filmmakers can relate to.
With production underway, “The Run”, is forecasted to finish shooting around the first week of April and will be one of the movies students can watch at the Film Festival in May.
