{"id":46792,"date":"2017-09-25T10:03:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-25T14:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=46792"},"modified":"2017-09-25T11:35:01","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T15:35:01","slug":"brock-grad-shoots-feature-length-horror-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/09\/brock-grad-shoots-feature-length-horror-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock grad shoots feature-length horror film"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>Lani Akande (BA \u201912) had 11 days to bring his vision to life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The clock began ticking as soon as the Brock Communication, Popular Culture and Film (CPCF) graduate yelled \u2018action!\u2019 with his crew working quickly to tell the story of <\/span>The Guest at Ol\u2019 Copey\u2019s<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Principal photography on the independent horror movie\u00a0\u2014 Akande\u2019s first feature-length film \u2014 was wrapped in time for him to begin the third year of his PhD in cinema studies at York University.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film tells the story of a Canadian university professor who, enticed by money, delves into selling African artifacts. She quickly finds out that \u201csome artifacts are not meant to be sold,\u201d Akande said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Guest at Ol\u2019 Copey\u2019s<\/span><\/em> is expected to hit the festival circuit in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of work and took a lot of sacrifice from everyone involved. It was a great experience, but it was long, too,\u201d Akande said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The shoot was not always easy. Issues related to locations and last-minute casting changes popped up, with very little time available for problem-solving.<\/span><\/p>\n

A supportive cast and crew helped Akande keep everything moving forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

Akande is no stranger to setbacks. After coming up with the movie\u2019s concept in 2014, he had planned to film in Nigeria and secured a small crew to assist.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I decided to shoot it in Canada, I had to completely rewrite the script and give up the former crew,\u201d Akande said. \u201cOnly two crew members remained to work on the film: Anele Onwuka, the cinematographer, and Pat McIlroy, working on visual effects.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McIlroy, also a graduate of CPCF (BA \u201906, MA \u201908), met Akande back in 2010 while working as a teaching assistant, which he did in addition to day job as a professional visual effects artist.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Akande sought him out to work on <\/span>The Guest at Ol\u2019 Copey\u2019s <\/span><\/em>five years later, McIlroy was happy to come on board.<\/span><\/p>\n

CPCF Chair Christie Milliken said she\u2019s always excited to hear about projects former students are taking on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut when alumni from our department reconnect and work together in the industry like this, it\u2019s gratifying in a different way. Both Lani and Pat were particularly strong students in our Film Studies program and, beyond that, had a real love for the art and craft of filmmaking.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Akande credits his work at Brock with shaping his path toward both filmmaking and graduate studies. \u201cIt was at Brock University I decided I wanted to pursue film practice as much as I pursued film theory and history, and develop my interest in the application of film theory to film practice,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s what I’ve been pursuing ever since.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lani Akande (BA \u201912) had 11 days to bring his vision to life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":46793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,1,4,38],"tags":[5811,5006],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46794,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46792\/revisions\/46794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}