(Video: Cole Bernstein)
As study-abroad students at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), WashU seniors Marielle Morrow and Cole Bernstein learned everything from how to shoot on film to how to build sets.
The result of their hard work, the film “A Bird in the Field,” has been selected to screen at the St. Louis International Film Festival at noon Nov. 15 at Chase Park Plaza Cinema. The movie centers on an ornithologist whose marriage begins to crumble after losing her research funding. Morrow, who is studying film and media studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, directed the movie. Bernstein, who is studying English literature and film and media studies, in Arts & Sciences, edited. The two shared writing duties.
“It was definitely high pressure because, in analog film, you have a really finite resource,” Morrow said. “You have to be very methodical as a director, and you have to think about what you’re going to say to the actors to get the best performance out of them.”
“It was intense but also exciting,” Bernstein added. “If you want to make a film and to learn about production, there is no better place to be than FAMU.”
In this video, produced and edited by Bernstein, viewers get a behind-the-scenes look at the filmmakers’ time in Prague and how they shot their film.
