{"id":10970,"date":"2017-10-09T08:29:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T15:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/dodge\/2017\/10\/09\/thesis-film-second-unit-finds-humor-and-truth-on-a-film-set\/"},"modified":"2017-10-09T08:29:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T15:29:43","slug":"thesis-film-second-unit-finds-humor-and-truth-on-a-film-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/2017\/10\/09\/thesis-film-second-unit-finds-humor-and-truth-on-a-film-set\/","title":{"rendered":"Thesis Film SECOND UNIT Finds Humor and Truth On A Film Set"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you ask someone what a second unit on a film set is, they probably won\u2019t know — that, or they won\u2019t care. Whatever the reason for its obscurity, a second unit is a collection of underdogs, and that\u2019s exactly what compelled director Ankush Khemani \u201818, producer Melina Coto \u201818 and writer Nick DiLorenzo \u201818 to make Second Unit: A Mockumentary<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

On a movie set, a second unit is a film crew responsible for shooting miscellaneous supplementary footage that the main unit doesn\u2019t have the time to capture. The work seems trivial, but it is extremely important. If they fail, the shots won\u2019t match the main unit\u2019s direction and vision; if they succeed, it will be subtle and virtually invisible. This is the struggle of the unappreciated workers of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we wanted to tell an underdog story on a film set, but it didn\u2019t really start clicking until we focused in on second units,\u201d says DiLorenzo. As far as the choice to make it a mockumentary, Khemani says that was an easy decision, \u201cI\u2019ve always loved how mockumentaries bring so much humanity and relatability to characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, the team began brainstorming. \u201cMoviemaking is chaos, and nothing prepared us for this project like sharing embarrassing on-set stories,\u201d Coto recalls with a chuckle. With an experienced team of film students, Second Unit<\/em> draws less from knowledge gained on set, and more from the rookie mistakes that have happened over the years.<\/p>\n

It turns out that making a dysfunctional film set requires a lot of hard work. Thankfully, the team feels up to the task — and they\u2019re having fun doing it. \u201cMy favorite projects are the ones where the crew comes together like a family,\u201d says DiLorenzo, \u201cand we hope that shows through in the film.\u201d Coto adds, \u201cthe film is about making a movie, but what really matters are the characters and the strides they take.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt its core, Second Unit<\/em> is a story of overlooked misfits doing thankless work, and that\u2019s a something we can all relate to,\u201d says Khemani. Mix in some quirky characters and the specificity of a blockbuster\u2019s second unit film set, and it\u2019s easy to see where the comedy stems from.<\/p>\n

Second Unit <\/em>shoots the last two weekends of October, and will be released in late March.\u00a0To see the campaign video, meet the team, and contribute to their fundraising goal head\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you ask someone what a second unit on a film set is, they probably won\u2019t know — that, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":19923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"custom_author_name":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[475],"tags":[57,359,950,121,28,44],"class_list":["post-10970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-spotlight-2","tag-film","tag-fundraising","tag-second-unit","tag-short","tag-student","tag-student-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}