FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
Martin Gwinup
Associate Professor, Department of Theater Arts and Dance
University of Minnesota
612-625-1315
gwinu001@umn.edu
http://studiob.cla.umn.edu/classes/th5550/

Students producing screenplay adaptation of Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart on location

Minneapolis, Minnesota- June 1, 2004 – Students at the University of Minnesota have a unique opportunity this year to participate in the production of a short film from start to finish, a screenplay adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Currently, the students are in the middle of production in an intensive Summer Intercession course. They are shooting the film on location at Rose Arbor Inn in St. Paul, Aurora Staples Inn in Stillwater, and Eastcliff in St. Paul, the official residence of Robert H. Bruininks, the president of the University of Minnesota.

Many of the students involved in the production were also involved in the project’s planning and preproduction. The Department of Theatre offered a course in preproduction this past Spring Semester, during which the project was developed. Some of the students’ responsibilities included: script development, storyboarding, scheduling, location scouting, casting, creating equipment lists and scheduling rentals.

In the Summer Intercession course, the students are working as a team to produce the video project designed during preproduction. The classroom moves beyond books onto location for an intensive work environment where the education is primarily in the experience. In addition to technical knowledge, students are also learning skills such as small group communication. They have to set attainable goals to be met individually and collectively over long and short periods of time so that the film has cohesion. The students must follow through with conflict resolution to make the film despite limited resources, unexpected events, and restricted time frames. The process is similar to a “real world” production, yet the students have the guidance of instructors and the help of undergraduate assistants.

This project will continue into the 2004/2005 school year. While new students sign up for each course, some students will see the project all the way from beginning to end. The postproduction course is where the production will get put together as students learn how to relate individual images to tell a story in a finished product. Not only are pieces of the puzzle assembled in postproduction, they are enhanced by effects, and the narrative is constructed through the students’ editing decisions.

Martin Gwinup
Associate Professor, Department of Theater Arts and Dance
University of Minnesota
612-625-1315
gwinu001@umn.edu

For a PDF copy of this press release, click here.