East Carolinian

Issue date: 2/10/09 Section: News

Media Credit: staff Photo

A group of four ECU students joined a local writer-director to produce their first feature film, "Scorn," which is currently being shot in Greenville and Ayden.

"Scorn" is a drama about life and its struggles. Together with writer-director Nick Dalmacy, ECU students Kyle Lutz, Ben Hunt, Joseph Joyner and Rachel Anderson set out to film "Scorn" in December. Lutz, Hunt and Anderson are media production majors, Joyner is double majoring in marketing and public relations, and has been acting for a while, including roles in "Dawson's Creek."

Told from the eyes of 10-year-old Kayla, "Scorn" conveys the story of all the difficulties that go along with starting a new relationship, and Kayla's survival of her mother's struggles. The film is about the relationships of Kayla's mother, but everything is seen through the eyes of Kayla, and how she experiences all her mother's highs and lows.

"This movie is a collage of relationships," Dalmacy said. He said the movie shows that "it really takes a lot for two people to keep the pieces together."

After Kayla's mother, Denise, leaves Jay, Kayla's abusive father, she meets Sean, who is the opposite of Jay.

Lutz said that the movie will make the viewer ask, "How can this 10-year-old see all this and still be OK?"

While shooting only on the weekends, the filmmakers are extremely proud of their entire crew.

Pre-production of "Scorn" started in the summer of 2008, after Cortelyou Films Inc. was founded. To make this film a reality, the crew got an award-winning producer/photographer, Southeast Video Production (SVP) owner, Robert Bonner. With over 14 years of experience in the industry, SVP has clients as far away as London, England.

Bonner was excited to take on this project, as most of his work consists of shooting advertisements.

Auditions for the film were held in August, and the actors were found through local talent agencies.

"We waited to find a dream team, we waited to find the perfect writer, the perfect director, the perfect producers, the perfect actors in order to create this cinematic masterpiece," Joyner said. "'Scorn' is a collection of all of our ideas. We all poured our hearts into this project."

The crew commented on how helpful everyone in the city of Greenville and the town of Ayden, Eastern North Carolina Film Commissioner, Frank Dooley, and Property Manager, Troy Kaufman, of Pine Brooks Apartments have been in accommodating the filmmakers in their project.

In Ayden, the mayor came out to thank them for using the town in their movie.

Cortelyou Films is wrapping up production in the next few weeks, and plans to screen "Scorn" in Greenville after the movie is finished. They also have plans to take to movie to several film festivals.



This writer may be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.

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