The coronavirus pandemic has challenged UW-Madison professors and students to come up with new ways to learn and work together. Lectures and labs are now online instead of in classrooms, and students talk to each other about their classes on WebEx and Zoom instead of at the Rathskellar or Memorial Library.
But how do you complete a film production class when you can’t go out to film?
That was the conundrum faced by the seniors in Communication Arts 659, a capstone Advanced Motion Picture Production Workshop taught by Erik Gunneson.
The course’s 20 students were divided into two groups. Typically, each student fills a specific crew position: director, cinematographer, producer, etc. Together they make a 20- to 30-minute film by semester's end. Films were to be shot over spring break in March—until COVID-19 unexpectedly shut the world down.
“The students were down and discouraged,” says Gunneson. “One group was shooting in Waunakee High School, had done all the location scouting and had all their permissions lined up, only to be told the school had closed when they arrived to start shooting. They never got further than the door.”
With no access to equipment and locations and no ability to meet and shoot as a group, things were looking bleak. But after some intense assessment, Gunneson asked his students to pivot into a different kind of project—a choice between writing their own film script or creating an individual film project in and around their homes using their laptops, smartphones and editing software.
“The spirit of this class is independent film,” says Gunneson. “We don’t take no for an answer.”
Gunneson, who’s always had a deep interest in documentaries and experimental films, challenged his students to tap the skills they will need when they enter the freelance-focused film industry: be creative and blaze their own path. For the past month, the class has been working on a range of projects, from observational films and animation, to music video and found-footage projects.
“Together, online, my students and I explored the many kinds of films they could make by themselves,” Gunneson says. "I also tapped our strong alumni connections in the film industry and brought in guests through video to talk with the students."
Jill Soloway, acclaimed creator of such shows as Transparent and I Love Dick, was one such guest. Eden Walech, one of the students in the class, was impressed: "Soloway answered questions about their start in the film and television, the joys and challenges of being a show-runner, their directing process, and the welcome responsibility of uplifting and sharing othered experiences. It was truly inspiring.”
Another student, Isaac Izard, was serving as the director of a group working on a short film called “Joyride,” a story about a girl and her grandmother who bond despite the objections of her mother. Izard and the group had gone to great lengths to set everything up, arranging both a local sushi restaurant and arcade as scene locations. The manager of the restaurant was even on deck to appear in a small role. Now, the footage they completed in two days of filming may never be used.
“It was heartbreaking to have to stop in the middle of our shoot,” says Izard, a senior from Milwaukee. “We were hitting our stride, and then the rug got pulled out from under us.”
Izard is meeting the class requirement by writing a script for an original short film, about a doppelganger inspired by a distinct “Twilight Zone” vibe. He says it hasn’t been easy going from a class focused on in-person collaboration with peers, to one taking place online. But there have been a few advantages—like Zoom’s text-chat function, for instance.
“I really find it beneficial for people who don’t tend to speak up in class,” he says. “Now we can all have this side chatter during the presentation, and it can be a quick way for us to drop links or references to films that relate to the subjects we’re learning.”
The shift to remote learning has another silver lining for Izard: the opportunity to go back and work on a personal film project he wouldn’t have been able to advance if his focus had remained on helming “Joyride.” He’s learned much about the importance of keeping projects moving, and he’s hopeful, as he prepares to graduate and look for his first job in the film industry, that opportunities will be there for him when production crews get back to work.
“Everyone is sitting on their hands right now,” he says. “I’m sure everyone is at home waiting for the job floodgates to open.”
Meanwhile, Gunneson has created a showcase for the films his students are creating online, in lieu of the traditional in-person festival event the Department of Communication Arts co-hosts with the UW Cinematheque and WUD Film in the semester’s final week. And even through the learning atmosphere has drastically changed, the point of the class has not. Starting May 8, student work can be viewed at https://commarts.wisc.edu/show...
“All the fundamental questions remain,” he says. “They’re just being asked and answered in a different way. I teach high-end production, but in the end, films are films, no matter how you’re shooting them. The main ethos hasn’t changed. It's still about visual storytelling and communicating a vision to others. We’re still getting something done.”