Nelson David Oliver

Major: Film Studies Minor: Spanish

Honors in Film Studies

Supervisor: Mr. David Monahan

THE RED CAPE:

RECREATING HISTORY ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET

Student films are generally regarded as being low in cost, resources, and overall crew experience. Adding the restraints of time and full academic schedules make any student film that much more impossible to complete. The production of my 35mm short film, The Red Cape, explores the boundaries of what is possible with a majority student crew working with a tight student budget. In addition to these limitations, The Red Cape also required period accurate frames, fifty plus extras over multiple shooting days, the construction of a two story façade, a controlled burn, over thirty period weapons, squibs, horses, carriages, and nearly one hundred period costumes. These elements were necessary for this to be a successful motion picture recreation of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot: a bloody day in which countless African-Americans were killed or exiled while the city government was simultaneously overthrown in the only proven coup d’etat in American history. The project utilized the collaboration and advice of several local industry professionals in an attempt to create a student film of a much larger scale. Only through years of research, professional help, and non-stop work was a crew of young film students able to surpass countless restrictions and recreate history on a shoestring budget.