While most Wesleyan students are beginning to cram for finals and enter the most stressful part of the semester this week, a few lucky seniors can say that their worst days are behind them. One of these lucky students is Rebecca Choi ’11, who recently wrapped shooting on her thesis film.
Argus: What is your film about?
Rebecca Choi: It’s about a quiet, lonely guy that works at a hardware store. One day he meets this girl, and she leaves behind a diary. He starts to have dream sequences about how he imagines her life to be based on the diary—I don’t want to give away the ending.
A: How was the shooting process?
RC: I shot at a lot of locations on Main Street, a hardware store, and a restaurant. I had to get permission, obviously. I think that this is the first year where a lot of the digital filmmakers didn’t use the Wesleyan cameras, but I did. For equipment rental I’d say I spent under $500. The process itself was very stressful. I can safely say I’ve never been so stressed out in my life. Just because I was one of the earlier shooting weekends, and my script and everything came together very late. Over the summer, when I was supposed to be writing the film, I was so uninspired. I had no idea what I wanted to write about. So for a long time I actually didn’t think I was going to do a thesis. I came back and one night, a week into school, creativity struck and I wrote the whole thing in a day or two. So everything started late for me, and I had to shoot early.
A: What’s a challenge you had to overcome?
RC: One of the biggest obstacles was that my actor had a ridiculous schedule because he was also acting in Richard III. My exteriors were shot in Hartford, so we’d get there, and he would have to leave. Fridays were the long days, and Saturdays we could only do early mornings. There were time-budgeting issues I didn’t foresee. But it worked out.
A: How would you describe your experience with the film major?
RC: I think that the department is definitely a challenging one. In terms of time commitment, the classes are just inherently longer. There also is a level of pressure, especially in the production classes, and I think that’s because the film department as a program has those attachments to the industry. A lot of times it feels like it’s training for something else, it’s not just a class. You feel like you have to prove yourself, also to your classmates. I think it’s a competitive major.
A: When you came to Wesleyan, were you intending to be a film major?
RC: Not really. I’m definitely not one of those people that came here intending to be a film major, the next big director or whatever. I mean I was very interested in movies, and I took Film 310 my freshman year so it was also an option. I loved the class though, and found out that you can’t really take other film classes unless you’re a major. I’m also majoring in music.
A: Do you have any plans for the film, or for post-grad?
RC: I haven’t done research into the kinds of things I could enter it into, but if I’m really proud of it I’ll definitely try to get it into some festivals.
As for my plans after graduation, since I wasn’t able to go abroad, I’m definitely looking to travel. There’s a program in France. I was going to go to Brazil, I did all the preparations for it, but then it didn’t work out. So I’d like to go there. In terms of a job, I want to do something related to film or music. I’ll have to get experience and in the beginning I’ll take whatever job I can get.
A: Do you have any advice for wannabe film majors?
RC: Don’t let your classmates scare you. There’s a lot of stigma about the film majors that they already know a lot when they come in to the department, which can be intimidating. I definitely know that a lot of kids feel intimidated, but I wouldn’t let that stop you from trying to be a film major, if that’s what you really want to do.
Rebecca’s film will be screened along with the other senior theses in the spring.
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