The Columbia Chronicle
6 • September 9, 2013
Senior filmmaker receives IMDb recognition
KATHERINE DAVIS Assistant Campus Editor
SETH SAVOY, A senior film and video major, has the honor of having the trailer for his film “Blood Brothers” featured on the Internet Movie Database, an online collection of information related to films, television programs and video games, more commonly know as IMDb. Savoy, an Arkansas native, said he had a $3,000 budget to produce the full-length film that was filmed in Chicago and Arkansas. “Blood Brothers” was co-directed by Jason Miller, Savoy’s classmate from the University of Central Arkansas, which he attended before transferring to Columbia in fall of 2012. Savoy said he is excited to be among noted members of the film community on IMDb. “We were there next to [the film] R.I.P.D., which was pretty cool,” Savoy said. Savoy said the film is about two brothers, one who lives in Arkansas and one who lives in Chicago. He said the brothers used to be drug dealers but something happens in the film that causes one brother to run from Arkansas. Savoy said he and Miller always had plans to collaborate on a film, adding that Savoy wrote his portion of the script in Chicago and Miller wrote his in Arkansas.
“When [Seth] told me he was moving to Chicago, we started thinking about ways we might want to stay in touch,” Miller said. “We figured the best thing we could do to stay in touch was to keep making movies together.” While Miller had a lot of people to collaborate with from UCA, Savoy utilized guidance from several Columbia faculty and students. Cory Coken, an adjunct film professor who acted as the supervising sound editor for the film, said he is amazed by the success of Savoy’s film. “It was great to see this coming from a student,” Coken said. “It was a big undertaking that he did [filming] in two parts of the continent with two different directors.” Coken said his main responsibility was overseeing the basics of the sound. Columbia students and alumni handled all audio aspects, according to Coken. “I made sure everything was going to be built and designed the way that I envisioned it and the way Seth was looking for it to be designed,” Coken said. “Then [I] handed it off to the lead sound editors and they went off and they built the track.” Coken said he would happily work with Savoy again in the future, adding that he hopes Savoy will actively involve him in upcoming projects.
Courtesy SETH SAVOY Seth Savoy works with actor Kyle Wigginton on “Blood Brothers.” The trailer was recently featured on the Internet Movie Database, commonly referred to as IMDb.
“The college as a whole should be proud of this piece,” Coken said. “I think this is a good piece to have out there and have it doing what it’s doing.” Savoy said he sought help from Peter Pyskacek, an adjunct film & video professor, for the coloring of the film. “He gave me a contact that helped me out,” Savoy said. “[Pyskacek] knew a guy who ended up getting [the film] colored in a professional coloring lab.” As of press time, Pyskacek had not returned The Chronicle’s requests for comment.
Savoy said most of the actors in the film were people the directors knew from Arkansas, but some of the roles were filled through a casting call in Arkansas. Jessica Serfaty, a contestant from cycle five of America’s Next Top Model, acted in the film. “It really wasn’t even a big casting call,” Savoy said. “We had a pretty good idea of who we wanted and what role they wanted to play.” Savoy said that half of the $3,000 budget was generated through Indiegogo, an international crowdfunding site, and he and Miller raised the other half.
“One of the coolest things about all this [is] when we were producing it, we got the camera, we shot in two different states, we got a house to burn down [and] we did all that for under $3,000,” Savoy said. Savoy said he hopes his accomplishment inspires and encourages other Columbia filmmakers to excel in their field. “I think the standard needs to be [raised],” Savoy said. “Hopefully other filmmakers who see this will want to top me and we’ll get better films out of it.” kdavis@chroniclemail.com
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