Over the course of the past year, Kent State students have worked with Kent State Independent Films (KSUIF) to create its newest project, Fly By Night. The film will premiere with a red-carpet event at 7 p.m., on Saturday, April 28 in Cartwright Hall. The event will consist of food, merchandise and a Q&A with the directors.
The full-length film, which has a runtime of 87 minutes, is a neo-noir crime drama that follows two detectives who lead very opposite lives. This is KSUIF's fifth feature film; for the past ten years, the student media organization has produced a full-length feature every other year.
Purchase tickets on KSUIF's website by clicking the "Shop" tab, and then "KSUIF tickets."
“After taking a country to war, the most difficult thing that a group of human beings can do is making a feature film,” Assistant Professor Scott Hallgren said. “There are so many moving parts and so many people who have to understand their jobs and what the end result is supposed to be.”
During production, there were about 68 students working on the set during the day.
“The kids really run this,” Hallgren said. “One of my favorite things about student media here is that, for better or worse, the students are making the decisions and they are the ones running things.”
Jim Naples, '18, and Nate Shively, '19, are co-directors of the film, bringing to life the script written by 2017 Kent State graduate Erica Collins.
“We wanted to add personality to this type of film instead of it being CSI-like,” Shively said. “We made sure that it focuses mostly on the people and their relationships.”
Hallgren wrote all of the music for the film, which was performed by an orchestra at Kent State Stark in a sound station.
About 50 actors from talent agencies and local acting schools tried out for various roles. Shively and Naples made final decisions after a lengthy process.
“My first year at Kent, I went to a feature film premiere,” Naples said. “If someone told me that I’d be directing the next one I would have laughed at them.”