Full-length student-run film premieres at Kent Stage

Britney Beaman

“Breaking News” produced through three-semester class

“Breaking News,” Kent State’s first student-made feature length film, premiered Wednesday night at the Kent Stage with a red carpet event.

“I was really impressed that students created the film,” said Janelle Leeson, a viewer and junior at the University of Akron. “There was a lot of action and decent acting that kept me interested.”

“The story was a lot different from the original version and I want to see how it ends,” said William Collins, another viewer in attendance. “The acting could have been better, but the plot was good.”

Collins’ brother was part of the duo that wrote the original script.

The action-packed film included a journalist who wants to join a secret group so she can learn self-defense. The group’s original goal was to stop violence on campus. The leader questions the journalist’s motives, fearing she simply wants to make a story out of it.

To find out what the journalist’s and the group’s motives were, go to the second showing of “Breaking News” Friday in the Kiva. The doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the film begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5.

The making of this film was a collaboration of the Department of Pan-African Studies and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The students who were part of “Breaking News” enrolled in a three-semester long course to make the film. The first course, pre-production, started during the 2010 spring semester; the second course, production work, was taken during the summer II 2010 session; the last course, post-production, finished this semester.

Tracie E. Williams, a lecturer from both the Department of Pan-African studies and the School of JMC, led the film project with help from Assistant Professor Dave Smeltzer and instructor Matt Pallotta, both from the School of JMC.

Williams said students did all of the work for the film, including the writing, directing, lighting, acting, editing and creating the music.

“This project has really been a labor of love,” Williams said. “The students worked hard to produce this.”

You can contact Britney Beaman at [email protected].