Crossing the Frames prepares film

By Victoria Irwin
Lycourier Staff

The cameras are rolling in Williamsport. Lycoming College’s Crossing the Frames is working on this year’s film, Pumpkin, with filming slated to begin soon.

Crossing the Frames is Lyco’s student run film club. Each year, they put together an independent film project. Club president Christina Moliterno described the basic process. “We find the script, we make it into a storyboard, we cast it, we shoot it, we edit it, and then we air it at the CAC [Community Arts Center]. It’s student made and it’s marketed by the student body.”

This process began last September when the club started meeting. They go through a process in which script submissions are accepted and voted on by club members. Moliterno said, “In the first semester we have different groups to get the word out and say, ‘Hey, if anyone has a script that’s 10 to 15 minutes usually, 20 minutes tops, submit it to us,’ and then it goes by a voting process and we choose the top 3, and then Leah Peterson, she’s the advisor, she picks the best script that she thinks will work best for us.”

Members of Crossing the Frames Productions
gather to work on this year’s film project
After the script is selected, students are signed to committees based on their preferences and proclivities. As president, Moliterno will be co-directing this year’s film along with screenwriter and Lycoming student Chelsea Moore. Other students are parts of various committees that accomplish everything needed on a film set, from sound technicians to food crews.

In this year’s film, Moore shares the true story of her mother’s necrotizing fasciitis, a skin eating disease that had manifested itself in her leg and had begun eating away at her muscle tissues, leading to the necessity of an amputation. The film begins after the operation with Moore’s character in the hospital about to see her mother for the first time.

Moore shared, “The script is about the first time I got to see her by myself. I was afraid to go in there by myself because usually my mom is there for such things, so I had to pretty much make up in my mind what she would say. There’s some dialogue in the script about what she would say to me, and there’s flashbacks in the script.”

To tell Moore’s story, Crossing the Frames tried to work with Susquehanna Health to film relatively close to campus before securing permission to film at an even better site. Moliterno said, “We actually called Jersey Shore Hospital and right away they said we could film in the hospital…and that’s great [because] that’s where the story takes place.”

To attract attention to the project, an open casting call was sent via email as well as advertised by posters around town, specifically to fill the need of older adult roles. Auditions for the film took place January 14 and January 22, and the production committee for the film saw several actors, both from the Williamsport community and the college.

After the film’s premier, Moliterno and crew hope to take the project one step further. “We would like to submit it to student festivals, like Student Academy Awards, and see how far we could get with something we’re so proud of.” 

For those interested in checking out the finished product, ‘Pumpkin’ will be screened April 11 at the Community Arts Center on 4th Street in downtown Williamsport.