For over a decade now, Campo’s Video Production 3 students have been writing, filming, and producing a singular ten-year-long film. Video Production teacher Justin Seligman said, “The name of the project is ‘Exquisite Corpse’. So each year, Video 3 students participate and add to the story. It was inspired by a turn of the century literary game called Exquisite Corpse, as well as a project called ‘The Story Beyond the Still’ by the Cannon Corporation.” The task, as Seligman explained, is to build off of footage from previous years and adapt the storyline into new directions to produce a cohesive movie.
Currently, the film is wrapping up production after just north of 12 years – 10 of which filming have occurred. And as the students working on the project have graduated, so have many of the characters. “Each year, it’s kind of like a different episode within the movie, so it will focus on different people. But the main characters are Lily, and then later on a character named Philip, as well as the bad guy named Yevgen,” said junior Julian Jackl, who is directing the final chapter of the film.
For the actual plot, Jackl explained, “It’s kind of like a spy thriller. So it starts with these people trying to dispose of a body, and then from there, it goes into this whole ‘James Bond’ kind of arc with corruption in it. But there are times where it can get a bit jumbled because 12 different people wrote it.”
Junior Max Stein, who helped with writing the final chapter of the film, explained some challenges that came with trying to wrap up the story. “A lot of the characters didn’t really have a motivation at all, so Julian and I, we kind of had to create it or infer character motivations from previous entries.” Jackl added, “The biggest challenges were finding solid actors as well as trying to connect the plot for it to all make sense. Because it’s been 12 years in the making, we have to basically fill all the plot holes. And it’s still confusing at some points in relation to the entire movie.”
But for Seligman, the jumbled, sometimes soap-opera-esque plot was actually one of his goals for the film. “For the first six or seven years, I really encouraged students to take the plot into unexpected directions and to not be linear with it. And then, especially in the last few years, they had the challenge of bringing it all together.”
Because of the discrepancies in the storyline, formulating a singular concrete theme was largely out of the question. “Originally, we were going to go for a more central message. But me and my other writer, Max, just realized not to focus on it too much, because everyone in the years prior have really just gone for making it fun,” said Jackl.
With a planned release of the film for the beginning of the next school year, Seligman’s hope is to show off the decade-long filming process either in the CPAC or even the Rheem Theater. He also spoke about the editing process, which is now underway in the final months before the film is shown. “We have at least one alumni who’s going to work on the editorial this summer. His name is Jeff Sawdon and he’s going to do color correction for us.”
In a world where we are increasingly absorbed by social media and school, Video Production’s upcoming film serves as a feat not just for academic recognition, but for innovative entertainment. As Stein said, “It’s goofy at its heart, and it’s meant to be enjoyed, not necessarily thought of very deeply. If you have fun with it, you’ll enjoy it.”
