Cinema Studies students work on award-winning short film

Cinema Studies students work on award-winning short film

students working with Deka Brothers at a film workshop
Students work with filmmakers-in-residence the Deka Brothers.

 

Thanks to an opportunity with Oakland University’s filmmakers-in-residence, 12 Cinema Studies students and two alums of the program have their names in the credits of an award-winning Deka Brothers film.

 

Julien and Benoit Decaillon recently won the Best of the Festival award for their short film “Father & Son” at the Hollywood Short Film Festival.

 

“Father & Son” was directed by the Decaillons and produced by Michael Manasseri from Made in Michigan Entertainment, a professional film production partner of the OU cinema studies program.

 

Making up a quarter of the crew, OU students worked as production assistants while the alums helped out in other positions.

 

The film itself is about a father and son exorcist team that attempts to free a young girl from a demonic possession, according to Tayler Mandziara, senior cinema students major and a production assistant for the film.

 

In the movie, the son grows frustrated with his father’s tactics, and by the end, things end up rather unexpectedly.

 

“It’s actually quite interesting and just how it’s shot — it’s beautifully shot,” Mandziara said.

 

What it’s like to work on a set

 

Mandziara said this was her first time working with Manasseri and the Deka Brothers, or working on a real set in general.

 

Her job included “pretty much everything” from grabbing coffee for the directors to working special effects to cueing actors, she said.

 

“You basically do everything that everyone needs you to do,” Mandziara said.

 

It was a little difficult at first, she said, because she didn’t know her place quite at the beginning. After a while she learned when to step in and when not to, and learned the ways of the set.

 

“It’s really cool, actually, because you learn about all of these things you don’t really know about until you go out there,” Mandziara said.

 

“It has been a wonderful experience being artists in residence at OU,” Julien Decaillon said. “We think students have received a wide range of professional experiences on our sets, from corporate work to more art house types of production. This is definitely something we would have loved to have gotten access to at their age.”

 

Since “Father & Son,” Mandziara has been working on more projects with Manasseri and the Deka Brothers, including a commercial for Fathead and a music video for “Anarchy Road” by Carpenter Brut. She said she’s been learning quite a bit from each director that she just couldn’t learn in class.

 

“It’s amazing to work with them because they’re willing to show us so much,” Mandziara said. “It’s so great.”

 

Partnership

 

This all happened in first year that cinema studies was offered as a major. Since then, students have worked on three feature films, many short films, commercials, a web series, music videos, book trailers and public service announcements.

 

The cinema studies program first began working with Manasseri and MIME in 2009, according to Andrea Eis, associate professor of cinema studies and coordinator of film production. It was Manasseri who introduced them to the Deka Brothers, who had come to the United States from France to help Manasseri with a feature film that students were working on.

 

“By developing a professional film partnership with MIME, and establishing the Deka Brothers as resident filmmakers, we were able to give our students ongoing and consistent professional opportunities for on-set experience with all of their productions,” Eis said.

 

 

For more information on the film and the Deka Brothers, visit dekabrothers.com.