About me: The Journey of Merrill was written by Kevin Lieber in 2006. The project was first brought to Keith Carlson early in the Spring semester when Kevin asked him if he would help with the taping of the movie as a side project during breaks in their senior capstone drama class.
After realizing their current drama project was a failure and Keith having been fired as Director of Photography - Kevin walked off the set and never returned.
Keith contacted Kevin after having a meeting with their professor and the two decided to make Merrill an official school project.
Kevin and Keith then brought in Casey Siegel who had been outcast from his own drama group to work on the audio and edit the project. Once the team was put together work began on the storyboards and the location scouting.
When the props, costumes, and actors were gathered - the shooting began. The scenes that took place in Merrill's house were shot in four days.The scene in the grocery store was done in four days and all of the exterior shots took about four days as well.
With only about a month and a half to do the entire project things were a bit hectic. Most fixes and re-shoots were done in front of a blue screen. They spent three straight days editing roughly 12 hours of footage with only about four hours of sleep.
After finally getting the project edited with only an hour before the deadline they turned it into their professor to be played at the Communication Department Showcase.
Who I'd like to meet: On December 19th 2006 - The Journey of Merrill was entered into the Aurora Awards Program in the Student Films category.
On April 3rd 2007 - the Aurora Awards sent out the Announcements to this year's winners of the awards.
On April 6th 2007 - Keith received the announcement that The Journey of Merrill had won the Golden Aurora Award.
The Announcement included the following:
The Aurora Awards Judging Scale:
Low - Average - Good - High - Excellent
The Judges Feedback:
Execution - High
Content - High
Creativity - Excellent
Additional Comments:
Best Elements: The Creative Shots
Areas of Improvement: Story Dragged Sometimes
Upon winning the Golden Aurora Award we are honored with the ability to have a statue award along with a certificate. A picture of the award is below along with the Aurora Awards website.
Please visit Kevin Lieber's website JuliusBloop.com for more comedy.
