On Friday night, dozens of Aggies filed into Bethancourt Ballroom in the Memorial Student Center to watch the student-made feature film “Maid To Kill,” a thriller-comedy made on campus.
MSC Aggie Cinema hosted the event, with its members ushering guests into seats and providing complementary popcorn for attendees, which included members of Aggie SWAMP, a filmmaking club, and students who worked on the film.
International affairs sophomore Madison Shuetner, who joined the cast as a hilarious side character named Amy, shared how she got involved in the film.
“I was a freshman, and I didn’t have anything to do,” Shuetner said. “… I was a theater kid in high school. I always enjoyed doing musicals and acting, so I filled out an audition form … We had auditions in the annex, and I got the part.”
For Shuetner, the best part of the experience was students coming together to make the film a reality.
“College students get so stuck in the cycle of just doing schoolwork, their job, and going to bed,” Shuetner said. “I think that this proves that even if you’re stressed, even if you have no time … there’s ways to pursue your passions that aren’t necessarily your major.”
Anant Upadhyay, Class of 2024, made his acting debut in “Maid to Kill” after getting involved through MSC Cinema.
“I was an actor for the end credits scene,” Upadhyay said. “During shooting, they were like, ‘Oh we’re also looking for a music guy,’ and I thought, ‘I’m a music guy. I’ve done it for years. I can help you out if you want.’ …. They came to my place and recorded stuff for a demo, and then when I moved out of College Station, I spent hours and hours working on the soundtrack.”
Although Upadhyay had never worked on a film soundtrack, he rose to the occasion.
“I’ve been doing music for years now with my band,” Upadhyay said. “ … This is a new challenge. I love to do it, and I went through with it, even though i’d never done music for a film before.”
The film was filled with absurdist humor that proved to be a hit with students, as members of the audience laughed the whole way through.
“I liked it,” communication senior Matthew Thomas said. “I thought it was very funny. … I didn’t expect a lot to be honest, with it being a student film, but it was very well-shot.”
Thomas was invited to the premiere through a mutual friend of the directors and was blown away by the turnout.
“I think this is cool,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t expecting this many people. I didn’t think this many people on campus would know about it.”
The directors included a Q&A portion of the premiere, where they discussed the film, their inspiration and the organizations that made it possible.
Management information systems junior Pranav Krishnan said he gets the majority of his inspiration from Indian movies, but his favorite movie is “Inception” — which was made by his favorite director, Christopher Nolan.
Marketing junior Connor Field said his influences include comedy director Mel Brooks and the Monty Python films — divergences from his co-director’s tastes.
The directors said they each learned a lot from this film and plan on using those lessons in future products.
“This film taught me that I’m not a comedy writer,” Krishnan said. “I like psychological thrillers, things that break your head. So those are the kind of films I’m going to write going forward. I actually started writing a psychological thriller book, and this movie helped me realize what not my genre is.”
When it comes to student films, many potential roadblocks can hinder progress, making adaptability the greatest skill of the cast and crew.
“When you write the movie, you have all these grand visualizations,” Krishnan said. “ … Once you start making the movie, you start realizing how not feasible it is … You learn to adjust with that, and you learn to be grateful for the scenario you have. Then when you edit the movie, you realize that you might get what you wanted after all.”
Field recounted his personal struggles with time management between school and this film, and the sacrifices necessary to make this film possible. At the time he was balancing 18 hours of classes, an internship, being a leader in two organizations, and filming the movie.
“Instead of watching movies with friends, I had to say ‘I need to get at least six hours of sleep because I got to be up at 5 a.m to go shoot’” Field said.
Field said he was impressed by the crowd at the premiere and was more than satisfied with the production as a whole.
“This was more than we expected, just the roars of laughter, especially for jokes that we didn’t initially intend but were still funny,” Field said. “Seeing that filled me with a lot of gratification. I’m thankful that we were able to finish this and … It came out better than we ever would’ve expected.”
