Over the course of the past year, ¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ students have worked with ¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ Independent Films (KSUIF) to create its newest project, Fly By Night. The film will premiere with a red-carpet event at 7 p.m., on Saturday, April 28 in Cartwright Hall. The event will consist of food, merchandise and a Q&A with the directors.
The full-length film, which has a runtime of 87 minutes, is a neo-noir crime drama that follows two detectives who lead very opposite lives. This is KSUIF's fifth feature film; for the past ten years, the student media organization has produced a full-length feature every other year.
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âAfter taking a country to war, the most difficult thing that a group of human beings can do is making a feature film,â Assistant Professor Scott Hallgren said. âThere are so many moving parts and so many people who have to understand their jobs and what the end result is supposed to be.â
During production, there were about 68 students working on the set during the day.
âThe kids really run this,â Hallgren said. âOne of my favorite things about student media here is that, for better or worse, the students are making the decisions and they are the ones running things.â
Jim Naples, '18, and Nate Shively, '19, are co-directors of the film, bringing to life the script written by 2017 ¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ graduate Erica Collins.
âWe wanted to add personality to this type of film instead of it being CSI-like,â Shively said. âWe made sure that it focuses mostly on the people and their relationships.â
Hallgren wrote all of the music for the film, which was performed by an orchestra at ¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ Stark in a sound station.
¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ 50 actors from talent agencies and local acting schools tried out for various roles. Shively and Naples made final decisions after a lengthy process.
âMy first year at Kent, I went to a feature film premiere,â Naples said. âIf someone told me that Iâd be directing the next one I would have laughed at them.â