Category: Uncategorized

By Brent Costantino

 The new economy of filmmaking has shifted to big business, according to David Atkins, Quinnipiac University film professor and professional screenwriter.

“Strong brand recognition equals a green light in the new economy of filmmaking.  If there is strong brand recognition of a film, studios will invest in the product,” said Atkins.

Atkins partnered with “Hot Tub Time Machine” director Steve Pink on an independent feature film in 2017.

The partners were aiming to secure a $12 million budget in order to produce the film, which is relatively small for a feature film in comparison to the consistent $100 million-plus budgets Hollywood has produced over the years.

The two ended up in serious talks with LuckyChap Entertainment, a Los Angeles based production company that recently produced the 2018 Oscar award winning film, “I, Tonya.”

“I, Tonya’s” budget was $11 million.

After nearly securing LuckyChap Entertainment as an investor and producer for Atkin’s independent film, the production company decided to opt out of taking the risk due to the lack of the film’s brand recognition.

This was a surprise to the pair because Pink has a successful history in the industry as a director, including “Hot Tub Time Machine,” which grossed roughly $65 million globally in 2010.  But in the eyes of the Hollywood studio executives, it did not matter.

This local story depicts one instance which many independent films have faced, the normality of being overlooked by production companies due to their lack of investment into original movie scripts as opposed to investing in previous well-performing and popularly-branded films in Hollywood, according to Stephen Follows, data researcher, film producer, and award winning writer whose work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and countless other major publications.  

“Studios will pretty much do whatever they think will make money.  So often the reasons why they don’t do x or y is because they don’t think it will make money.  They may be right, they may be biased or they may have never tried it,” said Follows.

The tendency for Hollywood studios to invest in pre-existing, money making franchises, isn’t a new trend, according to Keith Kasper, former employee of MTV, and current Morris Knolls High School’s TV and film production teacher.  

“From the early days of cinema with Edison to Cecil B. Demille, directors and movie houses wanted guaranteed money makers so they looked to popular books to bring in the crowds,” said Kasper.

Marvel Comics, for example, have had tremendous brand recognition, and the box office numbers prove the previous statement to be true.  The Marvel movie franchise has produced 22 films, which have grossed approximately $18 billion globally. Marvel has profited more than any other movie franchise in the history of cinema, according to the Harvard Business Review.  The “Star Wars” franchise trails behind the Marvel universe with an estimated $9 billion worldwide gross.

In an opinion piece for the New York Times, critically acclaimed film director, Martin Scorsese, wrote about the Marvel trend, and discussed changes that he has seen in the movie industry since he was a young filmmaker.

“I was asked a question about Marvel movies.  I answered it. I said that I’ve tried to watch a few of them and that they’re not for me, that they seem to me to be closer to theme parks than they are to movies as I’ve known and loved them throughout my life, and that in the end, I don’t think they’re cinema,” wrote Scorsese.

In relation to the grouping of different film genres throughout Hollywood, Atkins related the current business model to a garden.

“Like any type of garden, there should be multiple plants.  If Marvel movies represent one type of flower, there needs to be flowers representing other genres of film.  If there is only one crop, the garden will die,” said Atkins.

Dr. Robert Thompson, Professor at the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University referenced the fact that artwork as far back as the late 1500s depicts remakes of other entertainment sources in one form or another.

“Franchises and sequels go back a very long time.  Even Shakespeare implemented other sources of entertainment into his writing, and about half of Shakespeare’s original seven or eight plays were sequels or prequels to some extent,” said Thompson.

Sequels, for the most part, have remained a success in modern day cinema.

Disney Studios has consistently implemented sequels over the years, and their latest installment,“Frozen II,” proved to be a huge success at the box office.

The animated sequel had a budget of approximately $150 million, and broke domestic box office records by raking in over $130 million opening weekend, with a cumulative worldwide gross of over $920 million, according to IMDB.

“The ‘Frozen’ sequel would have broken opening weekend records if they had cats playing the piano on it.  The ‘Frozen’ brand was already so powerful, not just as a film, but clothes, toys and all of the other entities that made it a huge hit,” said Thompson.

“Frozen” was more than a brand, it was a representation of a generation’s childhood, ultimately granting its inevitable success amongst the youth, according to Thompson.

Independent films have trouble receiving recognition from a globalized audience due to their lack of brand-recognition, ultimately preventing studios from investing in the projects altogether, according to Atkins.

“It is not guaranteed that an independent film will get recognition.  Studios need the dollars, it’s not about the art of cinema. Production companies do better making fewer films with higher budgets because they perform better globally,” said Atkins.    

Universal Pictures granted a $250 million budget for the eighth installment of the “Fast & Furious” franchise, and the film ended up grossing over $1.2 billion globally, according to IMDB.

“Cars appeal to a global audience, and films like ‘The Shape of Water’ still don’t make as much money as a ‘Fast & Furious’ even when they win Academy Awards.  For any film to win an academy award is a needle in a haystack. Studios would rather invest their money in higher profiting films,” said Atkins.

“The Shape of Water” won four Oscars in 2018 including Best Motion Picture of the Year, and cumulated $195 million at the box office globally, according to IMDB.  

Thompson pointed out the business obligations that studio executives have with regards to green lighting investments into films which will be guaranteed money-makers for the company’s bottom line.

“Imagine if you are an executive at a studio and your future depends on growing the company’s bottom line, I would consider giving ‘Fast & Furious’ the green light as well because it makes substantially more money than most films,” said Thompson.  “A studio is going to put more of their investments into a sure thing, such as popular franchises.”

Hollywood studios have seen increased revenue due to a globalized business model, but their profits comes with a price to pay, according to Atkins.

“I do believe that there is definitely a lot of talent and originality that has gone missing due to the global profitization of the film industry,” said Atkins.

Jim Johnson, SAG-AFTRA member, and professional TV and film actor, recently starred opposite Al Pacino in HBO’s “Paterno.”  He has seen the shift of originality within the film industry move from big production companies to student and independent filmmakers.

“There is still plenty of originality amongst filmmakers, but mostly in student, short and independent films.  The big studios are all about the money. Whatever sells,” said Johnson.

Joe Marcello is a current senior film student attending Quinnipiac University, and he remains positive for the future of independent filmmaking.  As he eyes graduation in May, 2020, he intends to be a director.

“I’m excited to jump into the industry and make my mark.  I understand that a lot of studios favor big budget films, and turn their heads away from the new guy like me, but everything comes back around,” said Marcello.

Brandon Nieto graduated from Quinnipiac University’s class of 2019 with a BA in film production, and displayed a positive outlook on the future of independent film distribution.

“I think this generation has the best shot for independent filmmaking.  It is still hard to break into the industry, it’ll never be easy, but there are more distribution outlets than theaters to get your film shown nowadays,” said Nieto.

Nieto went on to explain how the increasing number of streaming services will allow filmmakers to have a better shot than ever before at getting their films out there.

Atkins said that a wave of independent filmmaking is on Hollywood’s horizon because of historical trends in the industry.

“I think that we are going to see a new wave of small budget films, much like we did back in the 1970s, but these films will be distributed directly onto streaming platforms.” said Atkins.  “Possibilities for the future of cinema are limitless.”

By Kim Kerremans

Vice President and Dean of Students Monique Drucker stated that residence halls Larson, Troup and Perlroth will be ready for the 2020-2021 academic year with air conditioning and will be asbestos-free. 

Quinnipiac University had to shut down three residence halls over the summer after finding materials containing asbestos during renovations. 

Students living in these three residence halls, Larson, Perlroth and Troup, had to deal with rearrangements of housing. 

The sophomores who selected to live in Larson and Perlroth were moved to Mountainview, Founders and Crescent on York Hill. 

The students affected received a $1,000 housing credit, $400 for the Fall 2019 semester and $600 for the Spring 2020 semester. Students that were assigned Crescent on York Hill will receive an upgraded parking permit which allows Hilltop parking on Mount Carmel campus daily from 6 a.m. until midnight. 

Drucker sent out an email notifying students on the issue. 

“I write to advise you that the Larson, Perlroth and Troup Residence Halls will not be available for occupancy during the 2019-2020 academic year, as previously planned,” wrote Drucker. “Students who were scheduled to reside in the suites will now be assigned to alternative on-campus residence hall.”

Students were given new housing assignments through MyHousing. Many suites were divided up without being told or provided other options prior to this. 

“I was supposed to live in Perlroth with seven of my friends, but I was moved up to York and two of my friends were put in a different room,” said sophomore Elizabeth McGrann.

Asbestos is a common term used to describe “groups of naturally occurring fibrous material known to cause cancer,” according to the Connecticut Department of Health.

Up until 1989 asbestos was used globally, however in the United States it is banned. You cannot build and use asbestos, but if it is in buildings predated 1989 they do not need to be taken down. 

Jose C. Alvarez, assistant teaching professor of civil engineering at Quinnipiac, explained some of the challenges associated with asbestos removal. 

“The removal of asbestos is costly and it does take some time since you need to seal the spaces and you need to go little by little,” he said. “It’s not like you can do the building all in one go.”

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, they issued a final rule banning most asbestos-containing products. “Which went into effect in 1991 after the regulation was overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. This regulation banned new uses of asbestos products that would be initiated for the first time after 1989.” 

Larson, one of the very first residential halls at Quinnipiac, was built in 1965, a time when asbestos was widely used. Then in 1966, Neil Salon became the third president of Quinnipiac and he sought to expand the institution. Under his leadership, two new residence halls were built: Irma Tator and Dana. 

These three halls were built when the health risks of asbestos were not widely known. 

“Asbestos is really dangerous for you to inhale, being in contact with it, so as soon as you find it and it has been impacted in some way, meaning it went out into the air, you need to remove it,” Alvarez said. “The removal process is usually to clean it and remove it, it requires you to seal EPA, Haz Mat suits and seal the area and then wet clean/vaccum the whole thing as you are removing it.” 

Different residential halls hold different amount of students per suite, many groups had to be split up. Quinnipiac Residential Life divided these rooms without asking the students what they wanted. They were just reassigned.  

“It felt surreal, the housing selection process is so tough and I had dealt with it, but then finding out a couple months later that I was assigned a different room with different people, it was hard,” said sophomore Evie Casey.

Hamden’s Building Official, Robert Labulis, applied for air conditioning permits, which initiated the renovation. According to Labulis the University’s Connecticut-licensed asbestos consultant inspected the buildings and determined that certain material in the buildings contained asbestos. 

Regarding students’ health concerns Labulis said, “unless students were chewing on the walls then their health in the buildings were not at risk.”

“Students were not at risk because it wasn’t in the air. It needs to have been broken down and have been in the air,” Alvarez said. “Asbestos works that as long as you are not impacting it, like if you are not making holes to put a TV on the wall, you should be fine with asbestos inside your walls.” 

According to Sal Filardi, vice president for facilities and capital planning, you are not required to remove asbestos if it was put there before 1989. However the University decided to remove all of the asbestos. 

“We could have painted over the walls and carpet the floor and we wouldn’t have to worry about the asbestos,” Filardi said. 

Almost five months after the news broke of asbestos being found in residence halls, the buildings are still closed and are currently being renovated. 

“Even though those buildings are going to be asbestos free, it will take them a year to finish,” Casey said. “The school isn’t going to do any renovations on other buildings because they know they will find asbestos and with the mess from this past summer they probably aren’t going to risk it again.”

A 29-year-old woman was found dead in Hamden on Thursday. The victim was found on Hill Top Circle in her bathroom. The police discovered many severe injures on her body that lead them to believe this was a suspicious death. An autopsy is scheduled but at this time the only information that authorities have is that the woman was unnamed and 29-years-old.

Quinnipiac University hosted Boo Bash, a Halloween themed event for students and faculty alike to gather on the quad of the Mount Carmel Campus last Saturday. Faculty brought their kids and they were able to play with some of the Universities student athletes as well as dress up in costumes. This event was held from 11am until 2pm and various fall activities and games were on display. The Hamden Food Bank was also there accepting nonperishable food items to be donated by the participants.

Local Hamden police officer Devin Eaton was fired following his arrested on Wednesday evening. Eaton was charged with first degree assault and reckless endangerment. This news follows an incident from April where Eaton shot two unarmed citizens in New Haven, one of the citizens was injured. There were 13 shots fired at these two individuals while they remained in their car. The Hamden Action Now organization was outside the police station protesting that Eaton be fired following the situations and there were many age ranges attending. Of those speaking, many college students spoke out about their views on Eaton and how he was unfit to handle dangerous situations after the man he shot was unarmed and was showing mercy with his hands raised prior to being fired at. Protestors said that they were planning on going straight to the mayor and if they didn’t hear back, they would continue to push for answers. These protestors marched throughout the streets and their numbers grew as the day went on. Even in the rain and bad weather, there were a lot of people out trying to make a difference. This action will continue to lead to change within the Hamden and New Haven communities as they have been active in other cases prior to officer Eaton.