News
What started as an assignment became a passion
By Chaz Wilke
Weekender Reporter
It’s
2 a.m. on a Sunday in early May. The world sleeps as two diligent students
put the finishing touches on their documentary.
Senior communication major Lauren Pollock and May graduate Casper Rice
worked together on “Please Wait To Be Seated,” a film originally
created for NIU’s advanced production course, COMS 426, and for the
community organization Easter Seals to show the perseverance of Sam Williams,
a boy with cerebral palsy.
At the beginning of last semester, the duo searched for a topic and ended
up choosing illegal drag racing. It was an easy subject, Pollock said
she remembers. She had a friend who was a race enthusiast, and knew it
wouldn’t be too hard to make a 10-minute documentary about him and
his hobby.
One night at Batavia’s Tribella restaurant, Rice was the server for
Ellie Cummings, the public relations director for Easter Seals.
“I talked to him about Easter Seals, and this really struck up some
interest,” Cummings said. “These are stories that can’t
be told too many times.”
Cummings said she feels quite strongly about the public knowledge of disabled
people, and thinks there is much left up to stereotypes.
“[Ellie Cummings] mentioned that she wanted to hire a team from PBS
[to make a documentary] to portray the power of family,” Rice said.
“She talked me into coming out to the facility and having a look
around. ... It was fascinating.”
Rice decided to offer his and Pollock’s services to Easter Seals,
who already had a family picked for the focus of the documentary.
“Neither of us has had much exposure to people with disabilities,”
Pollock said. “We met Sam just to talk to him before we started filming.
... We didn’t really know how to act. He played a motivational speech
he wrote, and it made us more comfortable around him.”
This offered a unique opportunity to create a documentary with an unbiased
eye. Rice said they were able to ask questions everybody wonders, but
doesn’t ask.
“What we portray in the film is what we wanted to know because so
many people don’t know about disabled people,” he said.
Many documentary filmmakers attempt to distance themselves from the subject;
they often act as detached voyeurs. For Pollock and Rice, spending so
much time with the family made that very difficult.
“We ended up getting closer,” Pollock said, “because you
need that comfort level when you step into someone’s life. ... At
times, we had to cut out ourselves talking on the film.”
Pollock and Rice said they had an easy time shooting the film.
“It just made itself,” Pollock said. “You follow him around,
and he’s got so much going on. ... You got a key subject, and your
focus for the film. ... Our main focus was therapy; we knew he was graduating
high school, but we couldn’t do it for class, so we wanted to add
[that] he made it through high school and [was] going on to college.”
Sam was the subject of more than 14 hours of footage. After gathering
the film, the arduous task of editing began.
“Editing is tough — it’s tense, it’s stressful,”
Pollock said. “Of course, there’s going to be drama.”
They mainly worked in shifts to avoid serious conflicts. Pollock would
work during the day, and Rice would edit after working at the restaurant.
“We started in the beginning of April, and basically had to have
it finished the first week of May,” Pollock said.
Every day in COMS 426, the classmates reviewed what they had.
“They liked it, but they were taken aback. It’s not something
you see every day,” Pollock said. “It was definitely good to
have constructive criticism. ... [Communication professor Laura Vazquez]
never tears a piece down; she says what’s good and what needs to
change.”
With the semester coming to a close, Pollock and Rice put the final touches
on what would be considered the first version of “Please Wait To
Be Seated.”
It generally was well-received by the students and their parents at the
screening night at the end of last semester, but the duo knew the story
wasn’t complete. The idea for an extended 20-minute version was planned
from the beginning.
“The end of the story would be him moving into the dorms,” Pollock
said. “We had to complete the story over the summer. I was happy
to put in the extra footage I shot.”
They filmed Sam’s graduation and his move into the dorms at the University
of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
Rice and Pollock said they’re happy they added the extra footage,
and when asked if they once again will create a new version, Pollock said,
“This is it. I mean, we could do a follow-up in five years of him
graduating college.”
Rice said there’s always something he wants to change.
“I’ll find little things here and there every time I watch it,”
he said. “[But it’s only] for the sake of change.”
The film was completed, and the buzz had begun. The first version won
Best in Fest at the Rock River Film Fest this summer, which is no small
task considering hundreds of films were entered in the competition.
“We thought it would be kind of fun. ... That was success right there
for me,” Rice said.
He was working the night the film won, and found out late that night.
“I heard from my little sister, ‘I guess you won best in show,’”
he said.
The next day, Rice and Pollock went to the fest to see posters of their
movie up with giant writing stating “Best in Fest.”
Pollock said she never expected to win the award.
“I’ve realized not to expect anything,” Pollock said.
Vazquez said she was very pleased her students entered and won the festival.
“You need to find out how the rest of the world thinks of your work,”
she said.
Now on the verge of the premiere of their second “final” version
of the film, the duo seems generally optimistic.
“I’m really happy with the outcome,” Pollock said. “I’d
be happy if five people came [to the premiere] because that’s five
more people who see it.”
So what’s next for the documentary duo?
“I think we’re going our separate ways,” Pollock said.
“This was just a project for a class that happened to be more.”
Rice said he thinks it would be great to work alongside filmmaker Michael
Moore.
“Just to run the cameras would be awesome,” he said.
The Williams family had such a profound effect on the duo that Pollock
said she wants to stay in contact.
“They have opened my eyes on a lot of things, and they made me feel
like part of the family.”
The premiere of “Please Wait To Be Seated” will be at 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday at “The Power of Family Exhibition” at Easter Seals,
830 S. Addison St., Villa Park. For more information and to RSVP, call
630-282-2026.
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