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On Tuesday, LaGrange College will host a question-and-answer session on professional film production. The panelists are crew members from “A Guide to Murder,” a movie that will be partly filmed on the college campus. The movie is projected to air on Hallmark in 2023.

This event is only for LaGrange College students as a part of the institution’s Cultural Enrichment programs they must attend for credits.

Moderating the event is LaGrange College’s Assistant Professor of Film and Media Arts, Yson DeBlois.

DeBlois said they have been working with the production team for a few weeks now.

“They approached us in October to not only use the campus at the location but also to include a lot of our students in the production experience,” DeBlois said. “They’ve provided us with a lot of opportunities and wanted to allow us to do this panel.”

DeBlois said the panel will consist of the director, the director of photography, and the unit production manager.

“They’re going to come and give some students some behind-the-scenes information on how

filmmaking works and what the professional filmmaking industry is like,” DeBlois said. “It’s a lot faster-paced than anything that they’re used to. So, I think it will be good for students to hear firsthand about types of experience from working professionals.”

She said the production company, Last Four GA Movies 22 LLC, has been generous and allowed some students from the film and media arts program and theater programs to work as interns for the film.

“Coming from film school and myself, there’s no way to mimic or replicate the pace, the scale and the urgency of professional film production in the classroom,” DeBlois said. “To have a live working example of film production that our students can dip their toe into before they’re actually out on their own is nice. I’m excited to see what the students are going to get out of it and what their recollections are all going to be like at the end of the production.” 

DeBlois said this will be the first time LC students have the opportunity to work on a narrative production of this scale.

From a career standpoint, DeBlois said there’s value in having the opportunity to see what their chosen career will look like.

“I have professional film experience, so I tell them many anecdotes,” DeBlois said. “But hearing it from them, I think will be validating because for pursuits in creative fields there’s many different versions, varieties, modalities and scales people in film production do professionally.”

She said it can be hard for students to understand how to make their path in film production.

“To see several examples of people who have different levels of success is validating and affirming for students,” DeBlois said. “I hope that every year or so we can have productions come in town so generations of students can continue to benefit.”