“Now more than ever I have experienced God calling me to go into this sin-driven industry to make a difference for his kingdom,” says Jeremy Olson, a cinema and broadcast arts major at Azusa Pacific University. Olson, who is a member of Modesto Covenant Church, produced and was the lead character in Imaginary Day, a comedy that repeatedly drew laughs from the crowd in the main auditorium during CHIC this past June in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Olson and fellow Covenanter and collaborator Cale Erickson were to spend the day on the set with the big-budget movie’s producer, Ralph Winter, as their prize for winning the contest. Winter was called away suddenly to London the day before the students arrived, but the two still said the day was life-changing.
“There is only so much you can learn in a classroom, and this experience showed us the abc’s of the applied film making process,” says Erickson, who also is a classmate with Olson.
Jerome and Erickson traveled October 16-18 and spent one of the days with the crew as it filmed in the mountains of a Canadian national park near Vancouver. They were introduced to crew members, including director Tim Story and associate producer Allison Callieri, who spent the day serving as tour guides.
Olson says he was surprised at how eager everyone was to teach the students. “We met nearly everyone working on the movie, and they all had something to show us and advice to give. It was awesome to see that everyone on the crew was like a tight-knit family. It made the experience a whole lot better.”
Story took time to give the students advice. “He encouraged us to pick up the camera and do something,” Olson says. “He said even if we don’t have an original idea, we should find the script from an actual movie and shoot that. It’s all about the practice.”
Erickson says the experience may alter the role he wants to play in making movies. “I thought I might want to take part in the post-production aspect of the filmmaking. After being on the set, I have kind of changed my direction into possibly producing or directing.”
The pair says the trip opened their eyes to different parts of the business. “The role of the assistant directors was one of the things that surprised me most,” Erickson says. “They were in charge of keeping the day going. I always thought that the director ran everything and was the one screaming the directions and working with the actors. The director’s role in this big-budget film was to select the take that was suitable to his vision.”
“It’s amazing to see how much preparation goes into one shot,” Olson says. The entire crew would be working hard for an hour moving cranes and setting up camera tracks and lighting, only to finally shoot and get maybe ten seconds of the movie finished.”
The students also met with all of the main actors, except Jessica Alba. “The most exciting part of the trip for me was when Michael Chiklis (The Thing) walked up to us in full costume and makeup and immediately began to tease us about being film students,” Olson says. “He was a hilarious and nice guy.”
Olson and Erickson are not able to discuss particulars of the movie because they had to sign a confidentiality agreement.
