Jordan, a soon-to-be film major whose non-arts interests include beer pong and board games, recently won the Independent Student Film Production Company’s screenwriting contest. Other interests in the arts include: starring in the occasional senior thesis film, NOT drawing, writing film reviews (in fact he’s angling to be the new film reviewer for Argus Arts), dancing “a little shimmy” (“like a white-Jewish-boy-urban-dance”), and choosing films for the CFA film series. His first comment was about the exact nature of In the Spotlight.
Will you be following me around with a giant spotlight for the next few weeks? I’ve always wanted one of those.
CATESBY HOLMES: Yes, and you will be really famous on campus and people will point at you. In a good way. So you are a film student?
JORDAN SCHULKIN: I’m about to submit my major, so [hopefully] I will soon be a film major. I’m actually delivering a film for the film department right now—the glorified crony job of the film department. I also project [in the CFA cinema] and I house manage. I came to Wesleyan because it was a liberal arts institution with the strongest film program. For example, Brandeis doesn’t even have film, at Brown it’s [bad]. I wanted to do film ever since I saw “The Usual Suspects” when I was 12. So that’s why I came here.
CH: So you won a screenplay contest?
JS: Yes, I submitted to the ISFPC last semester.
CH: Tell me about the ISFPC first of all.
JS: The Independent Student Film Production Company. Basically, Katie Goldschmidt [’05, a Film Major as well] thought that there should be more opportunities to make films on campus, because right now you can only do film production after you’re in the major, when you’re a junior, and you’re cleared to be in the class. You have to pass stringent grade requirements…. That means that all people outside the film department can’t do any filmmaking, and Katie thought that better films would be made if students had practice. ISFPC is a good practice ground for people who want to be involved in film. It’s kind of like Second Stage [a non-departmental, student-run production team]. So yeah, they held a screenplay contest, which I submitted to.
CH: What was your screenplay about?
JS: Ah, a pithy synopsis: it’s about this boy, a high school senior named Haden, who is a social pariah. His only friends are board games, if we’re going to personify board games.
CH: Any specific board games?
JS: He loves them all, but it highlights Crossfire, Hungry Hungry Hippos, he gets down with Scrabble, Risk, Battleship.
CH: The Classics.
JS: Exactly. My favorite board game growing up was Fireball Island, but that didn’t have a place in the script. So, social pariah, loves board games, his parents started getting on him for not having enough extracurriculars so that he can get into college…so he’s feeling that pressure, and the pressure of not being able to consummate his post-puberty desires for the opposite sex. So he figures the best idea is to start a club, and so he starts a board game club. And wacky hi-jinks ensue.
CH: How many people entered the contest?
JS: 22 submissions. Anonymous. So I’m on the ISFPC board, but it was anonymous so there was no nepotism. It was a close vote. My main man Peter Letz [’06] wrote a really solid script also.
CH: Did you vote for your own script?
JS: Yeeeeaahh. I mean, I like my script. I had to. It goes into production the weekend after Spring Break, and the script will be locked by Monday. Lots of board games are being amassed. We’re not sure how we’re going to show it, but since we’re totally independent of the film department, we’re not going to use the Cinema. Science Center is their territory too. We’re going to send it to festivals. I’m going to submit it in my town, maybe make $250. The Larchmont Film Festival. It’s like public access.
CH: Shout-outs?
JS: My intramural soccer team, “Gonads and Strife.” We’re 4 – 1 right now. And my beer pong team, “Chaos Emerald,” 6 – 3.
CH: Athlete and artist.
JS: And an expert at old school video games.