Students Debut Feature-Length Film Set in D.C.

George Mason University students Brian Jackson and Chad Gravallese debut their feature-length film, Smoke and Mirrors, tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Enterprise 80. The above trailer recently began playing on the Orca TV system throughout the university's student centers. 
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UPDATED 2:36 a.m. 

After a year of planning and production, two George Mason University students may soon be able to get some rest, and if all goes as they hope, some fame.

Smoke and Mirrors, a feature-length film conceived, filmed, directed and produced by sophomore film and video studies majors Brian Jackson and Chad Gravallese, debuts Saturday, April 17 at 6:30 p.m. in Enterprise 80.

Jackson says the idea of the film came about last April, after he and Gravallese saw State of Play, a movie starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck in which investigative reporters work alongside a police detective in attempt to solve a murder mystery set in Washington D.C. What enticed the duo most about the film, according to Jackson, was that forty percent of the thriller was filmed on location in the nation’s capitol.

“That night, after a lengthy late-night [conversation] at the University Mall McDonald's, we decided to go location-scouting in D.C.,” said Jackson, who acted in and produced the film. “We found a boatload of locations. And [then we] began working on a D.C.-based thriller.”

Original drafts for the film, written by Gravallese, envisioned the end product to be 10 minutes long. A year later, the two had seen that length grow to 20 minutes, then to 40 minutes, and then, according to Jackson, “ it got carried away,” resulting in the two-hour film that debuts Saturday. A second showing of State and Mirrors is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 21 in the Johnson Center Cinema.

Filming was on and off for six months, according to Jackson, and the duo edited as they went in order to save time and better coordinate scheduling for the film’s cast of over 20 people.

“We kept hitting obstacles due to the cast and crew’s busy schedules throughout first [semester] and [the] beginning of second semester, but we pushed through,” Jackson said.

While the majority of filming took place in D.C., following State of Play’s lead, some ultimately had to take place elsewhere. In order to include the plot’s flashbacks to the Iraq war, Jackson, Gravallese and company drove down to North Carolina to shoot in the desert and sand dune area of Jockey’s Ridge State Park.

“That really helped to bring legitimacy to the film,” Jackson said.

A ‘red carpet’ event will take place at 5:45 p.m. before the film’s debut. Jackson says there will be time after the showing for feedback, as the duo is still looking for input before making final DVD version to sell to distribution companies.