Marcus Wright 00:00
Camera rolling three, scene four, donkey, take four, a mark six, a mark three, a Mark, Mark.
Samantha Sheppard 00:06
My name is Samantha Sheppard, I am the executive producer and the studio head of PMA studios, this process is really about not just making a movie. It's really about the process, not the product. And the process is where you learn that filmmaking is an art form. It's a labor. It takes expertise and skills. It takes an entire crew. It takes belief that when you come together, you can make something really special.
Jeffrey Palmer 01:09
Hi, my name is Jeffrey Palmer. I'm an associate professor in performing and media arts, and my role in PMA Studios was the head of the directing and producing department. So a lot of what we did in directing and producing was making sure that we got everything set for pre production, which was breaking down the script and making sure that we understood how the script was supposed to be scheduled when we actually got to the day of shooting, the director and the creative producer were working with the directors of photography in order to create a shot list and a storyboard that we would work with. So we had two things going at once.
Carolyn Michelle Smith 01:56
My name is Carolyn Michelle Smith, and I taught the actors and guided the actors while on set for Milkshake Kiss so led them through character development for each of their characters, and also offered on set coaching to our wonderful director, Justin Lee.
Doorim Kim 02:14
Hi, I'm Doorim Kim, and I'm the head of camera, lights and sound department. Every week we did a camera test, and I slowly developed all the gears. In the last of the class, everyone was good to touch all the gears, and they understand their roles and be on the set.
Jeffrey Palmer 02:32
This was an experiment, this whole process of PMA Studios to bring 35 students together into a classroom and pedagogically create a system that works with the industry standards of a real set in the industry was a difficult process.
Doorim Kim 02:58
The students who've never been in a film set or never touched a camera the first week, they kind of scared, like, what's this? What's this big gear, and also the lighting stuff or the sound things. But since we do all the challenges, every weekend, exercise and the tests, and then they're really like, be confident of all the things, and then anything has problem in the sets, they was able to just solve it in a quick. So I think that was the big achievement.
Carolyn Michelle Smith 03:30
You know, what does it mean to be a student actor, just getting the opportunity to work on a film set for the first time? I know that I didn't have that experience until I entered the profession, but I think what it means to me is really, how do we gain respect for every professional that's on a set, even if they do something in that function that's different from what we do? So it means, what does it mean to build respect? What does it mean to gain greater understanding? And what does it mean to really take your own craft very seriously in application, particularly on the day that we shoot.
Jeffrey Palmer 04:09
So I think my favorite moment was we had an issue that we needed to take care of in terms of many different aspects of the set, and I was able to get on the walkie talkie and speak to one person who communicated to another person who communicated to another person, and we were able to fix that particular issue, and to do that on multiple levels, and to be able to understand the hierarchy of how a set works and how to communicate within that hierarchy, it actually worked several times. And when it did, it was really magical. So for students to come from literally not knowing anything, walking into this classroom to. Being able to solve problems on a major set was super exciting, and that was my favorite moment, when those moments happened.
Alexa Alfonsi 05:09
Hi, I'm Alexa, and I am the stage manager here at Cornell's Performing and Media Arts Center in Ithaca, New York. My role was, I guess, the unit production manager, basically overseeing all of the different departments that needed to have conversations, to come together on the day in the room to make sure that everything was ready and everything was there. Once we called action, all of the staff and all of the faculty were not in the spotlight on this one. We were there to bolster and support all of the students to kind of help them navigate the language, navigate the environment, navigate the kind of the jar that we built, you know, so that they could think outside of the box. But within the jar, we have a wonderful staff of incredibly hard working industry professionals. And that's kind of the beauty of this program as well, is that we have a lot of incredible faculty members, but then we have some really incredible staff members who who know the work, who are the costume designers and who are the costume shop managers, the prop managers, you know, the the scenic artists, the designers. You know this. It's such, such like, we spoil these students almost with with the amount of access to professionals that they have, not just within our faculty, but within our staff. Samantha Sheppard 06:38 There's something really unique about PMA, we are a department that, of course, covers so many disciplines, and it's really great to see filmmaking be shown as this really deeply collaborative, community based project where we're able to ensnare not just students, but the entire staff into the process of the movie making process.
Amere Sloan 06:57
My name is Amere Tirek Sloan. I am a junior here at Cornell University studying communications with a focus in Media Studies and a minor in theater PMA, in PMA studios. I was an actor. I played the role of Don, related to Jane, working on this film. I don't know it just like reassured everything the little kid in me that's always wanted to be an actor. My goal in life has always been to be representation for black young boys and girls out there who feel like they had no one to look to in the media. So being a black actor in this film and having like, a prominent role of like, being able to break out of this isolation was really beneficial for me, because it showed like, how strong my character could be, and how playing him, how strong I was, and just like his whole story arc was really special to me. Milkshake Kiss will forever hold a place in my heart, and I will never forget it.
Audrey Pinard 07:50
My name is Audrey Pinard, and I was the screenwriter for this show as well as I acted as Camille in it. I'm an engineer for the College of Engineering here at Cornell, and I study Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and I also like doing creative writing and also playing some music on the side. It's It's really been, it's really been wonderful in the sense that I got to see something that I had dreamed about in my bedroom when I was writing it come to life and see all these characters who I had written dialog for and written about how the set should look like, and then actually having it physicalized, we had an amazing experience getting to talk to a bunch of professors as well as other guest lecturers who came In and had, overall, a great experience to work with other people who some had never been part of PMA before, and I myself, this was my first time really being ingrained in it, and had a great time.
Cristina Pines 08:52
My name is Cristina Pines. I'm a senior at Cornell, studying communication in CALS with a double minor in business and film. I grew up doing musical theater. So being a part of PMA was always going to end up being a part of my path and my journey academically. And I'm so grateful to be a part of PMA Studios. My role in PMA Studios was acting as supervising producer, as part of the production team. Within that job, I was responsible for maintaining contact between all of the different groups, making sure that everybody knew what was happening. During the final wrap of our last day of shooting, I remember we all came into the set together, and it was just a little celebration. Everybody was so happy and excited that we that we did it. Essentially.
Gabriela Barelli 09:35
My name is Gabriella Barelli. I'm a sophomore double majoring in performing in media arts and environment sustainability. I was the boom operator in sound. It was a it was a really collaborative process, and I think that was really cool, and not something that you get in a lot of other classes. My favorite part. I was like watching all the different aspects come together.
Giacomo Cuomo 10:06
My name is Giacomo Yong Cuomo. I'm a senior in ECE, electrical and computer engineering and a minor in Performing Media Arts. I wear a bunch of hats in PMA studios. I was second second AD to help Jake, our first AD into his great job. I was first key PA, which basically had the responsibility to take care of the various PAs that were running around the set. I learned what to expect on set, but especially what to expect before and after getting on set, this was the prototype. We can only go up from now, and I cannot wait in a couple of years when I have a job or something, to look back at Cornell and see PMA studios as one of the staples of this department, to attract new PMA major, to attract outside people, to attract an audience for the wonderful people that live, breathe and create in this building.
Hannah Irvine 11:07
Hi, I'm Hannah. I am a senior in Arts and Sciences, studying government, and I am from Southampton in England. I played Marge, whose character in the milkshake kiss world, she is the waitress at the diner. And the way that we kind of devised marge's character working with Carolyn, is that she had placed some kind of hand in keeping this world alive, stepping onto a film set, film set for the first time was a really cool experience, and one that I'm very grateful to have. And I think it comes at a nice time in my time at Cornell, where I'm graduating soon, so I'm kind of thinking about what I want to do after with the rest of my life, and I've really loved this, so it's definitely going to be something I consider going forward.
Justin Lee 11:53
My name is Justin Lee. I'm a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in PMA and philosophy, and I'm the director of Milkshake Kiss, a course unlike anything that I've ever taken at PMA, because it's kind of this perfect combination of pedagogy and also this professional industry standard of filmmaking. And I think the course attempts to blend that, and so you kind of get both. I think the most significant thing I learned in this project is that filmmaking is really it's not just the result of of a singular vision or a singular mind, but it's just an amalgamation of of dozens and dozens of people's creativity and hard work. And I think in developing Milkshake Kiss and developing this project, I was able to see that. I think my favorite moment was when we finished the Oner. It was like, really long take that kind of closed off the movie. And it was, it was really ambitious, and I was really worried that we weren't going to get it in in a timely manner. But I think everybody came together, just cast, crew, and all the creatives involved just came together, and it just worked. I guess just the last thing I want to say is I've been really grateful for this opportunity, and I just, I genuinely did, just have a blast working alongside all these wonderful students and the faculty, and I learned so much from everyone.
Katherine Lynn-Rose 13:31
My name is Katherine. I am a senior in Performing and Media Arts here at Cornell, and I am the Director of Photography, one of two. Director of Photography is for Milkshake Kiss. So I work alongside Shamus Li, who is the other director of photography, and Justin Lee, who is the director, and we basically make the shots look really pretty, just like getting to know everyone on set. And we, by the end, we really created, like, a bond with between our crew and cast and everyone. And it was really rewarding to have finally wrapped, and we're like, yay.
Mia Sofia Orengo 14:03
My name is Mia Sophia, and I am a first year at the College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in PMA. My role in PMA Studios was being second AC and also Best Boy to gaffer. I have a new understanding of what it means to be part of a set. And I've never been part of a set this big, and thankfully, I've just been very lucky to have done so. But this has been the best experience yet, and I really am super grateful, because everybody put so much effort into it, the teachers, the students, for someone like me who's really interested in film and to get into the industry, to have experience it. Yeah, it was, it meant the world.
Orion Tian 14:44
My name is Orion Tian. I'm a senior here at Cornell. I'm a computer science major, but, you know, I have, like storytelling, so I, when I came here, I decided I wanted to also get a film minor. So that's how I became part of, like, the PMA department and everything involved, and how I eventually got to this PMA studio set. I was the gaffer, which was, is like the head lighting person interacts with the DP to, like, make sure all the lights get set, gets working in order to execute what the DP and what the director wants. One big moment was how there was this very difficult shot, this oner, where everyone had to come together. The actors had to all the actors were in the shot. And it was a complicated camera movement, the complicated lighting movement, so everyone just had to come together and work together to make the shot happen. And once we find got that final like, yes, we got the shot. The whole celebration that happened afterwards was really beautiful.
Owen Reynolds 15:43
I'm Owen. I'm currently a Bachelor's of Architecture major as well as a theater minor and a fine arts minor. I was an actor. My character was Frank, part of the larger ensemble cast, one of the regulars of the diner. Yeah. No. It was fantastic experience, definitely one of the best things I've ever done through the PMA College, just not only being able to be a part of it and on, like an actual film set, but also learning about every part of the process to make a film. Because, you know, I've only done stage acting, so like learning how the camera works, how you know, the hierarchy within a film set works, and really getting to experience that on a live set was just it was incredible.
Samantha Sheppard 16:29
As the executive producer and the studio chief here, well, the chair of the department, I want to know that this project, number one, came on budget, and number two, that the students learned something. But I think the bigger legacy of PMA Studios is that I want students to walk away with the power of telling stories.
Jeffrey Palmer 16:47
So not only do I hope that the audiences respect the image that they'll be seeing on screen and the story, but that they'll also respect all of the things that went in behind this process in order to make this film.
Alexa Alfonsi 17:03
Oh man, their lives will never be the same. These students grew so much from day one of this class.
Carolyn Michelle Smith 17:11
I think it's they've gone from students to artists. This is what I'm seeing among the actors that I've worked with, as well as the students that you know, I may not have collaborated with as actors, but that have just been a part of the production process in general, I think that the actors are learning about what it means to be an artist and to take agency.
Samantha Sheppard 17:33
I think one of the great things that I've noticed in our students is a real confidence, a confidence in being able to work together to tell a story. So many students had not taken any film classes, and now they know what it takes to really work on a set. And I think that's such a great gift, because, you know, these aren't just movies for fun. These are careers for some of you in the audience, you're going to remember the way you were on set making all this movie magic happen. For some of you, all friends of those on screen, you're going to get to see your peers in ways you've never seen them before. And for friends of PMA, you're going to see a new horizon in our teaching and curriculum processes, where we all come together and we make movies happen here at the Schwartz.