Adam Rothstein, a visualization graduate student, is aiming to put a science-fiction spin on his end-of-the-year thesis project.
Rothstein and his longtime friend Cody Pearce, Los-Angeles-based writer and producer of the film, will create a short film called “Rare Model.”
Rothstein, who is directing the film, said the movie and its plot are intended to prompt audiences to experience things that are strange and different to them.
“A young girl is on the run with her father from authorities who seek to capture and destroy them, and along the way she realizes that she is not in fact a girl, but an android,” Rothstein said.
While Rothstein started working on the film about two years ago, it is just now starting to take off. As of now, Rothstein will start filming in May with a cast of five that includes A&M students.
“We have artists and people working on the movie from Los Angeles to New Jersey,” Rothstein said. “To me it’s kind of fun, because the students at A&M in general have been really supportive and positive about the inexperience of the pre-production.”
Right now the props are being manufactured and the production team and Rothstein are looking into special effects. Friday Rothstein and the locations manager will travel to West Texas to scout areas to film on location. The rest of the film will be shot in an undecided aerospace facility on campus.
Visualization junior, producer and locations manager, Danyah Alriffi said she became interested in the project last spring.
“I always had an interest in movies, animation, entertainment,” Alriffi said. “When I heard about the movie I was just excited in general to be involved in a project like this. I had approached him and said I’ll do whatever job needs to be done.”
Alriffi said she hopes students can get behind the project.
“I think it’ll have a positive impact on [students],” Alriffi said. “It’s a big project, there’s a lot of people involved in it and I think this is the first time a project like this has been attempted.”
The first rehearsal will take place this weekend in College Station. The main character, the daughter Daphne, will be played by University of Houston student Valeria Dominguez.
“I’m really excited to just learn from the experience because Adam Rothstein is really talented and his team at A&M — I can tell they’re really professional and we’re all working really, really hard on it,” Dominguez said. “So we’re going into it to learn so much from it.”
Actor Bruce King, who is playing Daphne’s father Kurt, said he is confident in Rothstein’s ability despite his inexperience.
“I really wasn’t worried. I had a lot of confidence and knew it had a lot of support for a student film and especially someone’s master’s thesis,” King said.
The film is sponsored by Innovation Underground in downtown Bryan along with fundraiser campaigns through indiegogo.com.
When the film is complete, Rothstein hopes to get it shown in theaters.
“After the movie is complete, I want to show everyone I can,” Rothstein said. “Everyone who has been working on it has been working on it so hard, and I am really excited to see what it’ll look like. I really want to show it off. We’re aiming for our finished deadline at the end of December.”