For those of you unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the Columbia creative community or a certain 2002 HBO miniseries, Project Bluelight is a CUArts/CCSC-sponsored short-film contest in which screenwriters submit scripts and the selected material is then made into a movie. Project Bluelight the brainchild of Michael Molina and Jeff Schwartz, both CC ’10. The idea for the largest (with a budget of $2500) undergraduate film production project began in the beginning of the school year, when Molina and Schwartz proposed the concept to CUArts and CCSC, as well as other student groups. “Everyone we took it to was just immediately like, ‘Yes.'” explained Molina. The founders hope that Project Bluelight will become an annual event at Columbia, and both plan to stay on next year.



Twenty possible screenplays were submitted to the project, but the chosen one was “Setup”, penned by two-time Varsity Show writer Rob Trump, CC ’09. Today marks the final day of filming for the meta-(meta?)-comedy, in which a screenwriter casts his ex-girlfriend in a play about a screen-writer casting his ex-girlfriend in a play.

This afternoon, filming took place on the second floor of the ADP house on 114th street. About 20 people gathered on the second floor, the curtains tightly drawn around the windows and couches and chairs co-opted to store production equipment. Call time was 6:30 AM for the crew and about an hour later for the cast, but adrenaline was high and the pace was quick—they’ve been averaging shooting about 2 pages (of the script’s 12) per day.

Bwog, who had never been on a film set before, was informed that after production comes post-production, after which the production team plans on submitting “Setup” to various film festivals. Molina and Schwartz hope that the film will eventually premiere in Ferris Reel sometime in April.

– JNW