Feature Film, Finally

By: Lindsey Kupfer

Posted: 7/2/09

Many college students finish their degrees in four years, but for film studies graduate Jared Mercier, it took six years and he accomplished more than most students could imagine.

Before Arizona State University developed its new film school there was not a major that put all film students together. The business school gave producers their degrees and creative writing gave screenplay writers theirs.

During Mercier's six years at ASU he started his own film club when the existing one refused to permit him to make a short "Lord of the Rings" parody. He was the president of the ASU Film Association for many years and turned it into a networking club where aspiring actors, directors, producers and writers could come together and possibly even work on short movies together.

For five years Mercier has been working on a full-length feature movie titled "Madison Hall," and has finally completed it a year after graduating from ASU.

College Times: When did you start working on "Madison Hall"?
Jared Mercier: It's based on actual events that happened to me freshman year in the dorms. I started writing the script in 2004 for a screenwriting class and I thought, 'Well this is easy, I already have the story.' During the summer of '05 I started saying, 'Okay, I'm really going to work on this script.' I thought, 'Well I can do this movie for my Capstone project,' which is like your senior thesis. We did almost 10 months of pre-production and started shooting in '06. We wrapped principle photography in December of '06 and then did a year and a half of post-production. We locked the picture on April 9th and it was the first time we thought, 'Okay we are done, this is the movie.'

Briefly describe the plot of the movie.
The national terror alert has just risen from yellow to orange and fear and panic are spreading quickly, but not for the students at Granada State University. A new 24-hour quiet policy has just taken affect at Madison Hall. For residential assistant Melanie it's a relief, but for the residents it's non-existent. Two fights, a kidnapping, a break-in in the tunnel system and a bomb threat send the campus police for a wild ride as they search for a terrorist responsible for the acts committed by 14 dumb college students, all whom conveniently enough live in Madison Hall. The story structure in and of itself is kind of like that of "Can't Hardly Wait" or "American Graffiti."

How many hours a week would you say you put into the film?
It varied. During our first three weeks of shooting we were shooting five days a week. I personally and my producer would put in 14 hour days. From the moment we would wake up to the moment we went to bed. Even on our days off I would be working. It's definitely more than a full-time job. There's a reason that you associate the word 'martyr' with filmmaking because it can be that intense. Your entire life for a certain amount of time is just that. In April, toward the end, I was working at my buddy's house because he has the system that I was working on and I was there literally six days a week sleeping on his couch.

What was the hardest part about putting together a full-length feature?
The commitment. The hardest part was being in the middle and keep going and not giving up because so many people do. Getting to this point was the hardest part. You have these emotional rollercoaster's where because it's a comedy and you're working on it so much it's not funny anymore. You're sitting there like 'This isn't funny; nobody is going to think this is funny.' Then you show it to someone who has never seen it before and see them laugh. So you have these emotional up and down things.

What is your next step with the movie?
We want to world premiere at Slamdance. They have all these requirements and they are actually harder to get into than Sundance just statistically because they show less films. The reason we are waiting until January is because in order to play in major film festivals you have to world premiere it.

Are you sick of watching it yet?
Yes and no. It's hard for me to sit and watch the film by myself. It's easy for me to sit and watch it with someone else because I'm not watching the film I'm watching them and their reaction to it.