TV is no stranger to student films, but its definitely never made one as big as Fat Night, written and directed by Ben Noero '12. For one thing, it was so big that BTV had to split the cost with Noero. For another, the casting director from The Departed was involved. All in all, this was quite a production for a movie that only has seven actors and that was shot entirely at Cholmondeley's. Recently, justArts was able to sit down with Noero to discuss the professionals who made this happen, turning Chum's into a studio and the problems of working with actual film.JustArts: So, first things first, how did this project come about?

Ben Noero: I was on campus over the summer and had been writing it intermittently during that time. Then, this semester I came to BTV and proposed this film to them, that would be shot on Super 16mm film (the standard for independent films, including The Wrestler and The Hurt Locker), and that I'd help pay for [it].

JA: So it's more expensive than what BTV usually does?

BN: Well, BTV is usually able to film any kind of project, but this one was just so expensive that we had to split the cost. I'd been working a lot of jobs over the summer and only spending money on film equipment and rent, so I was able to help with the funding.

JA: What made this so expensive compared to past projects?

BN: Well, one thing we did differently was we hired a casting director, just a really nice woman named Carolyn Pickman. She's based in Boston and was the casting director for The Departed, Gangs of New York and a bunch of other movies that were filmed in Boston. I pretty much just cold called her and said, "Hey, I'm a student. Would you please cast my movie?" She told me to send over a script, and she liked it.

JA: Did that cost you a lot?

BN: I mean, we still had to pay her, but it was a student rate. Nothing too bad. Once we had her, we just spent four nights in the BTV office and saw over 100 actors.

JA: Did you cast any Brandeis students?

BN: That's tough because all the student actors get picked up over the summer for theater projects. We have one Brandeis actress, Danielle Zipkin '12; she has a small part in the movie. We actually sent out a casting call to see if any theater actresses wanted to be in it, and she ended up being fantastic for it.

JA: Other than the casting director, was this all made by BTV?

BN: No, we also hired a director of photography named Beecher Cotton, who lives in Waltham. We had him for three days and spent the rest of the time following his example. I have a pretty good background in photography and lighting, but there were things he did with [both photography and lighting] that you'd never even think of. He was a really valuable asset.

JA: Outside of production, can you say anything about the plot?

BN: Not too much. I can tell you that it's a very small, contained story. It just has seven actors, and it all takes place in a diner, but we [filmed] all of it in Chum's. The thing is, it's gonna be bizarre if you ever watch it there, because it looks nothing like Chum's in the movie.

JA: How'd you pull that off?

BN: Every weekend at7 in [the] morning we'd go and black out all the windows; we basically turned it into a studio. People got pretty confused; we even had some police officers come by and ask us what we were doing.

JA: Is this the first time you've directed something?

BN: Yeah. I mean, I made some movies with my friends during high school and started a few things at Brandeis that never really came to fruition. But this is really the first script I've written and the first project with professional actors and a crew that's come together like this.

JA: Is filming over now? How long do you think it will be before you show it?

BN: This [past] weekend [was] our last weekend of filming. When we go into post-production, we're going to have different options available to us, from an online release to a festival screening. Plus, we're working on the Super 16mm, which is actual film, not digital recording. This means we're going to have to digitize everything. BTV actually doesn't use Super 16, but this was a special case of me renting out the film and equipment. I want to have it out by the end of the semester, but we're not exactly sure what we want to do with the film just yet. But I'm hoping for everything to be released by the end of the semester.