Making its premiere at this year’s UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Film Festival will be a first-of-its-kind, student-created television pilot. Under the guidance of noted television director Rod Holcomb and veteran feature producer Beau Marks, 47 graduate and undergraduate students created the 42-minute, five-act pilot, "doubleblind," for the "Advanced Dramatic Television Workshop" class."This special project advances our vision and long-range plans by providing students from writing, acting, directing, producing, cinematography, costume design, production design and music a highly collaborative experience to create a first-of-its-kind television project unique to any film/theater school in the world," said Dean Teri Schwartz, who conceived of the undertaking.
The pilot, which was in production for 37 weeks and was filmed around campus, was written by graduate students A.J. Marchisello and Teresa Sullivan. The story is a sci-fi thriller about six graduate students who sign up for a social experiment only to discover that they have been genetically altered in vitro. They band together to expose and destroy the mastermind behind the ongoing illegal experiments before it’s too late.
The pilot will be shown during the film festival’s inaugural TV Night on Wednesday, June 12. Following the screening at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater, Holcomb and Marks will lead a panel of student filmmakers in a discussion about the creative process and collaborative effort that went into the creation of the pilot. To see the full schedule of events, including those where outstanding student achievements will be honored, go here.
