York College Students and Campus Land Roles in Professional Film Production
A Mass Communication major and a Film and Media Arts major recently served on the crew for a movie that was filmed partially on campus.
As Spring Semester 2024 at York College of Pennsylvania came to a close, Film and Media Arts Adjunct Professor Doug Henderson told a few of his students to expect a phone call. He was producer on a film titled “Maybe We Should,” a biopic about Leg Up Farm founder Louie Castriota, and was in need of production assistants.
Marcos Repolle ’25, Mass Communication, and Joey Snyder ’25, Film and Media Arts, received the call in midsummer. Production on the film was about to begin, and if they wanted to be on the crew, they needed to submit an application.
Both eagerly took up the offer.
On-set promotions
Marcos initially joined the team as a location production assistant. He spent a week shadowing Henderson as they traveled to various locations throughout York and ironed out the logistics of filming at each site. They had $2,000 to $3,000 to spend on location-specific items such as food, trash cans, and necessities to keep the cast and crew comfortable. Once filming began, Marcos’ initiative and work ethic earned him a promotion to the grip department, where he focused on rigging equipment to help shape the lighting and camera angles for each scene.
“It was nerve-racking. The people I worked with were Los Angeles professionals,” Marcos says. “It was a big learning curve but it was really good to learn from them.”
Joey began working as a production assistant in the film’s initial makeshift office in the Heritage Hills Resort ballroom. He arranged for accommodations for the crew and handled on-set logistics, doing anything from grabbing lunch to picking up cast and crew members at the airport.
“My role was incredibly dynamic,” he says. “I got to meet everyone in every department.”
Like Marcos, Joey earned a promotion once filming began. His hard work caught the attention of the second assistant director, whose job is to ensure that everything runs smoothly on the set. Joey was moved to the assistant director department to help with what’s known in filmmaking as the first team. His assignment was to help make sure that the needs of the principal actors in the film were addressed.
“I would get them through their day on set as efficiently as possible,” he says. “I didn’t realize it was such an involved department. It was a wonderful experience. It was a lot of work but I feel very thankful they had faith in me.”
Filming on campus
“Maybe We Should,” which stars actors Kevin Nealon and Heather Graham, chronicles Castriota’s path to establishing Leg Up Farm, a therapeutic center for children with special needs. The storyline details his struggles as a parent of a child with such needs. When production began, the York College campus was chosen as a filming location. The nursing simulation labs in Diehl Hall doubled as a hospital setting, while the building’s exterior served as a high school.
Dr. Ian Olney, Professor of Film Studies and head of the Film and Media Arts program, believes this is the first time a professional production has been partially filmed on York College’s campus. In the process, the College hammered out a filming agreement with the production company that Dr. Olney hopes will clear the path for other on-campus productions.
“It’s just an invaluable learning experience,” he says. “We work really hard to educate students in the classroom, but the kind of education you can learn hands-on you can’t get any other way. There’s an emphasis in the program in trying to get students those experiential project-based opportunities.”
Bridging classroom and career
Post-production work on “Maybe We Should” is underway as the filmmakers hope for a York premiere on campus when the movie is released. For students such as Marcos and Joey, the experience has opened doors for more such work opportunities.
“Starting in the office and ending where I did and having such a broad experience helped me see how an independent film production works inside and out,” Joey says.
He keeps in regular contact with members of the cast and crew and looks forward to additional on-set and screenwriting opportunities.
While the experience clarified for Marcos that he doesn’t want to spend his career in the grip department, the work taught him a lot about lighting and safety in filmmaking. His goal is to act, direct, or work as a director of photography. He believes that the connections he’s made through this project will help him take that next step.
Dr. Olney hopes that other film producers will collaborate with York College as the industry continues to grow in Pennsylvania.
“There are plenty of opportunities on the East Coast and in PA. We’d like PA to be a great place to find work after they graduate,” he says. “What I’d like to see is more of these types of experiences and project-based learning. Those kinds of education experiences that marry classroom with hands-on learning are what we’re really invested in.”
