Zayna Haliburton
Staff Writer
Senior journalism and media production major Alexsis Page is currently working on her second short film, “Worst First Date, Ever.”
The idea for the film came after her first short film, a comedy titled “Typical Tuesday,” premiered at school in the spring of 2016.
Page said she thought about the concept for “Worst First Date, Ever” more critically because there were things she would have changed in her first work.
“It took me about two weeks to write this one,” she said. “This one was a little bit harder to write, but the story line is different. I wanted to challenge myself with writing.”
“Worst First Date, Ever” is a comedy and mystery about Kimberly, a girl who gets a call from her friend, Naomi.
Naomi asks Kimberly to show up at a location. When Kimberly arrives, she notices a body.
Page said finding actors and people to help film and direct was easy because of her Cameron connections.
“I’m a theatre minor, so it’s really easy for me to find people that are willing to act in the movie,” she said. “Also, since I am a [JRMP] major, I can get people who are JRMP majors to help out.”
In contrast, she said the hardest part about putting a short film together is the planning process that occurs before the writing of the script.
She had to take the resources around her into consideration as well.
“I’m a college student,” she said, “so I can’t afford to get a set and pay actors to be there, so everything is volunteer based. I have to do everything on my own time. I still have a job to go to. I still have classes to take care of.”
Communication Professor Dr. Matt Jenkins said he has encouraged Page to enter “Worst First Date, Ever” into film festivals upon its completion.
He said he does not think it is enough for a student to complete something without allowing others to experience it first.
“I want them to take that extra step of putting it into a festival or arranging a screening somewhere for people to come and appreciate it,” Jenkins said. “Then they can see how the audience reacts to their work [when] the production is done.”
He added that he would like to see Page enter her film into festivals in Georgia because she has mentioned interest in film production in Atlanta.
“There are a lot of available jobs in [Atlanta],” Page said, “and a lot of movies are shot there and TV shows, so it would be a really great place to get my foot in the door.”
Paige said she plans to screen her film on campus at the end of the semester.
She also currently hosts CUTV’s “Film Geek.” She has shared her passion of films through the show throughout the academic year, showing trailers for upcoming movies and updating audiences on movie industry news.
According to Page, “Film Geek” helps her share news with others, which gets others into the movie conversation as well.
She said she likes when people come up to her and mention that they watched her show.
“I’ve seen people that are like, ‘Hey, I saw the movie because you watched it, and I liked it; I felt the same,’” Page said. “I like the discussion you get to have. Even after the show ends, the discussion continues.”
Find episodes of “Film Geek” and other student-produced media at aggiecentral.com.