The Fall of Murkport

The film was first conceptualized several years ago in a classroom at BGSU. We were tasked to gather footage with a DSLR. My two friends and I took a narrative approach to convey a fight while highlighting the beauty of a serene landscape. It wasn't until my senior year was approaching that I decided I wanted to build upon our short by creating a seriously ambitious student film that would push the boundaries of student filmmaking.
That's when the idea for "The Fall of Murkport" formed. Tom Cyphert, Cj tymke and myself sat down to start pitching ideas to each other. It was during this meeting that we established the dilapidated world our story would reside in. This marked the first stage of development. I wanted to show two completely different worlds sitting next to eachother. A giant steampunk inspired city, more advanced than any other civilizations in the world, juxtaposed by a culture where they live off the land. The main theme I wanted the story to center around was loss. From there the characters almost created themselves and the story fell into place.
From here, it was a matter of logistics and figuring out how to tell such a cinematic story. I managed to do this with delegation amongst a team of film students I appointed as department heads for production. It was definitely a challenge and a lot of planning between everyone on the project to set up the scenes and accomplish the aesthetic I was going for. We had days where everything would go wrong- we would have to completely reorganize a day's shoot, a scene setup and even shots to complete my vision
Yet with all that happening I believe we made a great film in the end. It was stressful, daunting, fun and exciting to make. Now that it's done I'm glad to get it out for people to see.