PRCC film students to premiere ''Heroes of the Round''

A movie produced by film students at Pearl River Community College premieres in Hattiesburg at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 9, at the Lowery A. Woodall Advanced Technology Center.Heroes of the Round is an action/melodrama written and directed by PRCC student Landon Skipper of Carriere and produced by Blake Bush of Purvis.The 30-minute film is the sophomore class project for students enrolled in PRCC Television and Film Production class.It based on the fall of Satan from heaven in the Bible, Skipper said. There a group of heroes that supposed to protect the people. It led by the Master. No one in the heroes group has ever seen the Master. One of them starts to question his existence. He begins to try to lead a rebellion against the Master. At the end, he confronted by him and cast out of the group and his position is taken away from him.Skipper plays the part of Levi, the questioner, as well as directing.Bush worked as assistant director and cameraman in addition to producer and acted as the Master.The project began with the five sophomore film students learning to pitch their movie to potential financiers, said instructor Ronn Hague, PRCC digital media coordinator.They made their pitch to our business and marketing management instructors, Hague said. The scripts were judged by one of our English instructors who also has RTF (radio-television-film) experience. The students scoring the highest points were able to produce their film. Landon and Blake partnered in this and they scored the highest points throughout.Pre-production began in October and the class began shooting on Dec. 27, while most PRCC students were on Christmas break. The crew shot footage on campus, at the Dixon Theater in downtown Poplarville and at the home of Scott and Rochelle Holliday.Editing and special effects have taken most of the spring semester.My reaction was an on-going reaction of Hey, I did my job well., Hague said. I really didnt expect them to do quite as well as they did.Skipper and Bush screened Heroes of the Round for a focus group in April and premiered the movie on the Poplarville campus on May 1. Reaction has been positive.It seemed like everyone was a little bit surprised at the quality and the level of professionalism in both the acting, the editing and the special effects, Hague said.The next step in the process is to look for outside reaction.Were going to send it to contests and film festivals, Bush said. Were planning to put in on Amazon.In addition to Skipper and Bush, film students involved in acting and production were Dean Shorba, Steve Smith and Nicholas Chedville, all of Poplarville; Ian Waller and Benjamin Sanford, both of Columbia; Jordan Banashak of Bay St. Louis and Kameron Jackson of Carriere, who wrote the music. Marvis Tabor of Columbia, a first semester film student, also worked on the film.PRCC student Daniel Soley of Carnes acted in the film while fellow students Ira Martin of Lumberton did the voice of the Master and Stephen Berry of Columbia was the narrator.Others who acted or worked on the production were Jake Leonard, Jared Montgomery, Lindsey Navo, Alex Carnathan and Chris Rushing, all of Picayune; Max Hutchinson and Wesley OMary, both of Hattiesburg; Hailey Putnam and Hayden Putnam, both of Carriere; Joel Cagle of Nicholson and Lynette Shorba of Poplarville.For information about the PRCC Television and Film Productions class, contact Hague at 601 403-1316 or at mailto:rhague@prcc.edu.”>rhague@prcc.edu.