The three IU alumni hosted a free Q&A Tuesday about their feature-length film “Walter” that IU Cinema screened later the same day. The movie opens for a limited nationwide premiere Friday.
The alumni also talked extensively about the road from IU to where they are now in their careers.
“Walter” producer Hill, a 2006 IU Department of Theatre and Drama graduate, said he carried his memories of the University with him when he moved to Chicago the fall after graduation. While in Chicago he started a theater company named Purple Bench Productions with three other IU alumni. The name, he said, came from the purple benches that now sit outside of the Wells-Metz Theatre.
“It represented this place where all the people I worked with and collaborated with would meet,” ?Hill said.
One of those people Hill worked with during his time at IU was Shoulberg, who was an MFA student in IU’s playwriting program while Hill was an undergraduate.
Hill said he really wanted Shoulberg to let him use one of his plays for Purple Bench Productions, but Shoulberg repeatedly turned Hill down. Shoulberg said he was really defensive of his work at the time because he had faced negative ?criticism in the past.
“I sat in a room writing tons of plays, but not letting anybody do anything with them,” he said.
His story fed into one of the main points the alumni made: you can’t succeed if you never try. Hill said it’s important for aspiring creators to “go out there and fail; that’s how you’re ?going to learn.”
Eventually Shoulberg said he relented and decided to share some work with Hill.
“He sent me this short story called ‘Walter,’ and I said, ‘We have to do this,’” Hill said.
After Shoulberg converted the story into the script for a short film, Hill said he thought former classmate West would be perfect for the title character of “Walter.” Hill and West had rekindled their friendship after Hill moved from Chicago to Los Angeles where West acted.
When the short film was complete and the alumni took the film around to various festivals, Hill said people wanted more out of “Walter.”
“It felt like an introduction to a bigger piece,” ?Shoulberg said.
In the spring of 2011, Hill said they decided to turn “Walter” into a full-length film. He said they knew the hardships people face when they make independent films, but they were determined to make it happen.
Even after filming went underway, West said they knew the funding could fall through at any time.
“It’s impossible to express just how volatile making an indie film is,” he said.
The alumni also said filmmakers need to be prepared to do whatever they need to do to make their movies happen. Hill said while he primarily focused on acting at IU, he had to take classes in every aspect of theater from set building to light design.
He said he was also very involved with the undergraduate theater production company University Players. His involvement with that group, he said, forced him to get his hands dirty doing things such as searching for funds and creating sets.
All of these experiences helped him with his role as a producer for “Walter,” Hill said. Because producers don’t have very specific jobs, he said, they have to do “whatever it takes to make sure it keeps moving ?forward.”
Kevin Renn, an IU junior studying theater, and IU theatre department’s fiscal officer James Barrow said they think networking was the most important topic the alumni talked about.
“I don’t come from a theater background, but I’ve been here seven years,” Renn said. “I’ve learned in the theater industry networking ?is key.”
West, unlike Hill and Shoulberg, didn’t graduate from the IU theatre department — he majored in philosophy and anthropology. However, he said his last year at IU was very influential because he acted in a play titled “Suburbia.” That was the first time West performed in a play at IU, and he said it led him to meet a lot of people he immediately clicked with.
Now he’s an actor in a feature-length film with some of those very people.
Renn said he enjoyed getting the opportunity to talk with people beyond college.
“It’s cool to see where they’ve gone and where they’re going because obviously their dream is not ending here,” he said. “And ?neither is mine.”
