Filmatix Films: Crew Opportunities

Creating infinity
Western Kentucky students shoot for 18 minutes of fame in production of short film
Published: April 16, 2004 by Daily News.Written by: Alicia Carmichael
In Kevin Crisp's world, "Infinity" lasts only 18 minutes. It costs $2,500 and centers around dreams. And when it ends, somebody's dead.

"Trapped in an infinite circular paradigm, four unknowingly connected men exist within a sequence of dreams," says the tag line for "Infinity," a short film produced and directed by Crisp, a senior broadcasting/TV production sequence major at Western Kentucky University. "One man struggles to break free from the cycle by destroying a link in the chain."

"Infinity" is a project for one of Crisp's classes. But those he recruited to work on the film say it has become much more than that for him.

"Kevin poured his heart and soul into this project," said Keith Blaser, a Western senior who plays the leading role of David. "So I knew right from the beginning it was going to be a good project."

Blaser, of Evansville, Ind., has been in the Peridot Pictures production of "The Greatest Adventure of My Life," as well as in Hank Williams Jr.'s video "Why Can't We All Just Get A Long Neck?" He's also acted in many WKU productions, with Public Theatre of Kentucky and in several Western student films.

But when Blaser saw the finished "Infinity" recently, he said "it was wonderful, spectacular."

"Infinity" was written by WKU forensics coaches Matt Gerbig and Jace Lux, both graduates of Western. But Crisp rewrote the script with the permission of the authors.

"Some of the dialogue was changed to make it a more visual film," Crisp said. "The ending was altered to create more resolution and less ambiguity."

Crisp, of Louisville, says he enjoys learning to do such work. It's the kind of thing he could learn in film school - if he were to go, which he's not.

"What has hindered me the most about making films is that I've had to stay in school," he said. "I'm tired of that."

While making "Infinity" this semester, Crisp took 15 hours of classes at Western and worked three jobs - one at Insight Communications in Louisville, where every weekend he has two 12-hour shifts of installing and repairing digital boxes, phones and cable modems; at Western, where he works 10 hours each week as equipment supervisor for the broadcasting department; and at Star Studios in Bowling Green, where every Wednesday and Friday he works from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. as first editor for projects, among other tasks.

Money that Crisp made working those jobs paid the $2,500 film production cost, which included taking the cast out to dinner after every day of shooting and buying T-shirts Crisp designed for the movie.

"I just spent every penny that came in on the film - short of paying my rent," Crisp said. "I didn't sleep either. After the second week (of shooting), I was getting about 10 hours of sleep a week."

Crisp said he could not have done the job without every person he worked with, especially Karin Otsuka, a Western freshman from Madison who served as the film's production manager.

"She was sort of the legwork of my producing," Crisp said. "So I could go off and do other things."

Those things included Crisp's acting debut in "Infinity," which was filmed in 10 locations in Bowling Green and on Western's campus.

Twenty-eight actors were in the film, each of them recruited by Blaser, who is directing the WKU stage production of "Sticks and Stones" on April 26 and 27 at 8 p.m. in the Gordon Wilson Theatre.

Blaser said he learned a lot through the experience. He hopes it will help when he studies at Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts this summer, and when he heads out to New York this fall in hopes of landing a spot on a soap opera. Blaser has an audition coming up for the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live."

Otsuka thinks "Infinity" has helped her, too.

"I like working on it because the way Kevin works is he dedicates so much more than other students working on film," she said.

Crisp's dedication isn't ending. He's going to work full-time at Insight this summer so he can save $10,000 for a full-length feature film he plans to make in the fall.

"From there, I actually plan on making major motion pictures in Hollywood," he said. "That's where I want to go."

- "Infinity" will be shown free to the public at 7 p.m. April 30 in the new Media Technology Hall at Western. Popcorn and refreshments will be sold, as will promotional T-shirts.