Shouts of "rolling" and "action" cued the Chapman Project to start rocking out on the stage of John R. Emens Auditorium Saturday.
The Chapman Project is a music video that was put together by Christian Guynn, the senior producer and director.
The music video is 99 percent student run, but the group has one faculty adviser and one faculty consultant to guide them and help out when needed, he said.
"I want to leave a legacy of pure brilliance," Guynn said. "I will not settle for anything less."
The video started out as an idea that would improve his resume and help him to get into graduate school, Guynn said. In the end it turned into a full scale project; including a cast, crew, band and $14,500 in grants and financial aid refunds, he said. Guynn wants to make the music video look as professional as possible, he said.
The Chapman Project will be filming in other places on campus and Indianapolis, Guynn said. A few of the band members and crew will also go to Santa Monica Beach, Calif., for one of the scenes in the video, he said.
When the music video is finished it will be entered in a total of 46 independent film festivals, Guynn said. He said he hopes that the Chapman Project will not only get cash reward, he said, but earn recognition from the festivals. He said he hopes the Chapman Project will be asked to come to an awards ceremony or possibly help out with another project.
On Saturday there were no faculty advisers to be seen in the theater. Students rushed about the auditorium trying to prepare their equipment and the band for the video they are about to shoot.
The music video consisted of a seven-member band covering Snow Patrol's song "Run," Guynn said. The project has 105 crew members who run the show and make sure it runs smoothly, he said.
The band includes: freshman singer/acoustic guitarist Ben Clark, senior electric guitarist Adam Hendrickson, freshman bassist Donnie Hyso, senior pianist Guynn, graduate student and cellist Gregory Kinat, junior violinist Alison Nimtz and junior percussionist Michael Chandler, Guynn said.
Michael "Boston" Paddock, senior lighting designer said, he recorded the percussion tracks for the music video but will not play in the video because he really wanted to take the role of lighting designer.
"It's been a good morning," Paddock said as he rolled his eyes on Saturday.
When he arrived at the theater that morning, Paddock said, all his patches and cues were gone, and he had to recreate all his cues as the band was being filmed that morning.
Adam Greye, stage manager, said he was "building them on the fly."
As the band jammed on stage, Paddock flashed and faded the lights out while adding strobe lights to emphasize the importance of the electric guitarist's solo. The strobes blazed around the stage while one light held still to spotlight the soloist.
Because all his cues were lost, Paddock said, he took a chance with the strobe lights, and it worked out perfectly.
While the band was getting filmed on stage they played along with the track it recorded earlier, Guynn said. The band played along with its prerecorded track so that everything would be on time and run smootly, he said.
With the cameras rolling, the band's music flowed out of their fingertips and into their instruments without flaw. The singer's melodic voice pulled the song together with ease.
Clark said, the experience of making a music video has been enjoyable and the quality has been over the top.
The band worked well together even though it has come together on such short notice, he said.
Hendrickson said he is also impressed with how well the band has played together considering they only had a day's worth of recording.
Suddenly the stage manager begins to call out, "Where's my band, I need my band." Everyone starts to gather around the stage, preparing to start filming again.
Overall, Chandler said that the project has been a great experience and that it was unique for all the students to work well together on a project of this scale.
Sean Dumm, senior production designer said, a big part of the Chapman Project is working together. All jobs overlap each other and that enables the crew to hide each other's mistakes, Dumm said, because they know how something should look and when it needs to be fixed.
Most of all, he said, it is important for the crew to not touch each other's equipment.
Dumm said this as their photographer began to mess with one of the video cameras.
As the photographer continued to play with the camera, Dumm yelled, "Props and cameras are like genitalia: if they're not yours, don't touch them."
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