It's evident upon arriving at a meeting of Works in Progress that this club is an equal-opportunity filmmaking organization: Attendees at a recent get-together ranged from cinematic novices to SunDeis Film Festival winners. This disparity in experience doesn't faze the club's founder, Jeff Arak '07, or deter him from achieving one of his ambitious goals for the group's participants: Bringing everyone up to speed on movie production in the course of a few weeks.

Arak has planned workshops on the basics of camerawork and editing, featuring film-industry professionals, and he expects members to take Works in Progress seriously. "We want to be the club where if you're interested in film, you can go, you can learn, you can start making the stuff that interests you, to learn about it," Arak said. "And maybe by the time you graduate you'll have made some connections with one of the professionals who have been teaching the workshops."

Those expectations were reinforced at the Sept. 20th meeting by the presence of one of those professionals, Labid Aziz '98, a Boston producer and director. Aziz is the co-founder of Two Rams Entertainment and his résumé includes progressive works like "Raisins Not Virgins," a short film that challenges notions of entitlement and what it truly means to experience Jihad.

Aziz discussed plans to help the club's members pitch and develop films that could end up being digitally aired through such venues as dotcomedy.com, a new Web site created by NBC Universal that plays a variety of classic comedy shows and viral videos (the term refers to clips that become popular through the Web).

Aziz said he wants Work in Progress to treat him as a resource. "If there is a particular interest, I will try to find ways of addressing it," he said. "I have access to all kinds of individuals who are involved in film and television in various capacities, some with tremendous résumés, so I will just call in favors and see what happens."

Although Arak plans to bring in more professionals with industry experience to tutor the club's members, he has a fair amount of experience himself. Between internships with two media organizations in Southern Mexico and the production of the SunDeis prize-winning documentary Voice Through Film: A Visual Study of Indigenous Media in Southern Mexico, Arak has been contemplating his brainchild, Works in Progress, since his sophomore year. Citing a lack of production classes at Brandeis, Arak said he is motivated to provide Brandeis students with as many opportunities as possible for filmmaking, and he's already approached BTV: 65 and secured equipment for use by Works in Progress members.

But Arak said students should not be intimidated by the club's intense program because he and his contributors merely hope to help members enter the world of filmmaking as soon, and as competently, as possible.

"The goal is simple," Aziz said. "Let's find a way to empower these Brandeis students with the tools necessary to create compelling, powerful and effective media. Let's show them all the opportunities that are afforded to media creators and the possibilities in this new media-driven culture. It's actually a very exciting time to be a media creator.