It was always my goal, if not the core reason, to bring students onto this short-film. When I first started talking about this story with my classes I had a couple of interested students. That couple quickly turned into fourteen. The only motivation I had for them was to create a good looking action-adventure shortfilm that would be taken to festivals. I had no cash incentive for them.
After talking with some of my fellow faculty members at MTSU, it was suggested by Kevin McNulty (who had received grant funding on a short before) to have those interested students apply for grant funding. 14 of our students wrote proposals dictating timelines, goals, workflows, and budgets. We went through MTSU’s office of Undergraduate Research Center and Creative Activity.
I am elated to say that 13 students were granted funding from URECA grants! I’m so thankful to Jamie Burriss and the URECA office who decided our project was worthy to award our students with funding.
The next step for Half-Dead is a crew meeting where we will do a script read-through and assign early assignments such as story boarding & designs. We’re meeting on May the 4th and potentially also screening some of the new Star Wars Visions season 2 episodes afterwards.