On Campus News

One junior and three seniors from Western Kentucky University decided they were going to make a short film together last summer. The result was JOEY, a thought-provoking and clever short film that is also moving and has some beautiful cinematography. Dallas Wilson talks about the process and people that went into making JOEY.

Can you tell me a little bit about the short film JOEY and the inspiration behind it?
JOEY is a short film that was mainly inspired by the writer Andrew Yontz. Last summer, myself and a group of WKU [Western Kentucky University] film students got together and decided to block out 4 days of our summer to shoot a short film together. We emailed back and forth for weeks while coming up with more ideas for the script and finally got it nailed down. We really wanted to try something different, and writing a story that doesn't have any dialogue, yet still takes you on a journey, was our goal. We shot the film in Bowling Green KY; including the downtown square, Max's apartment, Cloud 9 Hooka, and some overlooks.

Who were some of the people involved in working on the film? How did you know them and what did they add to it?
Andrew Yontz wrote and produced the film. We struggled to find a male actor to play Joey, so Andrew ended up playing the part and I think he did an awesome job! Ben Bell was the DP and we both operated the camera. Max Moore was our chief lighting technician and editor. Max had to find and create over 80% of the audio in the film to re-create the subtle sounds in the film. Others that worked on set were Jayme Powell, Sam Cherry, and Austin Wenger. Our friend Lindsey Pillow played the musician, and two theatre majors at Western, Kelsey Thompson and Sebastion Kearney, played the park couple.

How did you finance the film?
The WKU film program was a big help with the film. We rented out many of our lights and gear from them. We used my Cannon 5d mk11, Andrews 7D. Our film professors Ron Remarse, Travis Newton, and Ted Hovet were a great help through the process as well. I think we spent under $100 dollars making the film.

Can you please tell me about the filming process that went into making JOEY?
We sent emails for a few weeks during the writing and planning process, and blocked out two weekends to shoot. It was in the heat of summer and we had no air conditioning in Max's apartment where we shot the bed room scenes. My favorite shoot is the last scene. We actually shot the two angles in totally different locations and combined them. It was a hot and tiring process but we learned a lot and had a great time shooting!

What do you hope to accomplish with JOEY?
This team was a combination of Max and I, and Andrew and Ben. The four of us have competed in film festivals in the past, and decided to form a team for this film. By combining our strengths, we learned a lot from each other and I think we came off with something we're proud of. We hope for JOEY to be recognized in film festivals and gain online exposure on vimeo. We hope it will inspire younger film makers as well as open doors for us to network with other creative people!





Resources:

JOEY on vimeo.com