2B — Thursday, January 15, 2015
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

M-Agination Films President 

Anna Baumgarten is not a film 
buff.

“This is the most embarrassing 

thing about my film major back-
ground because I don’t watch a 
ton of movies,” she said. I have 
more, since I’ve been at school, but 
I don’t have a lot of influences that 
I could pinpoint (as a filmmaker).”

That may seem odd, consid-

ering Baumgarten oversees the 
annual production of more than 
a dozen student films, but rather 
than reaching her current position 
because of an obsession with films 
and directors, the Screen Arts & 
Cultures senior was motivated by 
a love of writing and performance.

“I always wanted to be a writ-

er,” she said. “When I was in 
second grade, I wanted to be an 
author … And also performance. 
I acted throughout middle school 
and high school, and (film) was the 
combining of those two passions.”

Interested 
in 
screenwriting 

from the time she arrived at the 
University, and curious about 
directing, Baumgarten submitted 
a script to M-Agination, and the 
club accepted it — an unusual but 
extremely exciting opportunity 
for a freshman. She would direct 
that project and continue with 
filmmaking from there.

“I was more writing initially, 

but I fell in love with production 
along the way,” she said.

Baumgarten is now in her sec-

ond year as president of M-Agi-
nation. The club has 16 board 
members and is in its first year of 
a restructured hierarchy. Instead 
of two co-presidents and no other 
leadership positions, like in years 
past, the club now has a president, 
vice president, secretary and trea-
surer, as well as marketing and 
business sections. As leader of the 
club, Baumgarten — who is also 

on the sales career course track at 
the Ross School of Business — gets 
to oversee and manage both the 
business and creative aspects of 
the club.

***

Formed in 2000, M-Agination 

Films is a student-run produc-
tion organization that accepts 
scripts written by students and 
helps those students find actors, 
equipment and funding to film 
those screenplays. Each semester, 
around 30 to 40 eager screenwrit-
ers submit their scripts to the club. 
Everyone on the Board of Produc-
ers reads the scripts, and then 
the club meets to decide which 
projects it wants to produce (usu-
ally resulting in around eight per 
semester).

When describing what they look 

for in the scripts, both Baumgar-
ten and LSA senior Anthony Kalil, 
M-Agination’s vice president and 
a SAC major, point to quality first.

“We’re looking for a good story, 

strong voice, characters that are 
likable and people want to watch,” 
Baumgarten said, who also noted 
that the club aims to produce films 
in a variety of genres each semes-
ter.

But M-Agination also has to 

look at which productions are the 
most ideal for filming in a college 
town with a very small budget, 
and so both Kalil and Baumgarten 
mention feasibility immediately 
after quality. It can be challenging 
to cast roles that aren’t meant to be 
played by college students, or find 
locations if the script calls for a 
scene set somewhere that can’t be 
found in the Ann Arbor area.

“Does it take place on the moon? 

If it does, it’s probably not the best 
material for M-Agination,” Kalil 
said.

Working under Baumgarten 

and Kalil is a group of produc-
ers who oversee the day-to-day 
operations required to make sure 
the films are made. LSA freshman 
Max Doyle originally tried to sub-
mit a script to M-Agination last 
semester. While the club didn’t 
have the resources to produce it, 
they liked his writing and told him 
about an open associate producer 
job, which he took. Doyle is work-
ing on a five-minute drama called 
“Looking Back,” now in the final 
stages of post-production.

“Most of my stuff, being an 

associate producer, actually hap-
pens before we even get on set,” he 
said. “We only really had one full 
day of being on set, but I took up 
my jobs a couple months before 
that, like getting the location 
down and finding all our crew and 
making sure our directors like our 
actors and everyone can meet at 
the same time.”

“I’ve talked to a few real pro-

ducers in the industry, namely 
Christine Vachon,” Doyle contin-
ued. “And she says that being a 
producer is kind of like being an 
executive babysitter. You just got 
to make sure everyone has what 
they need and is at the right place 
at the right time.”

***

The culmination of M-Agina-

tion’s year is its annual film festi-
val. Held at the Michigan Theater, 
this upcoming April will be the 
14th time M-Agination produc-
ers and filmmakers gather to see 
what they’ve accomplished in the 
past two semesters. While many 
of these filmmakers (the ones in 
SAC, especially) may have pre-
sented their class films in Uni-
versity buildings at the annual 
Lightworks Student Film Festival, 
seeing their work projected onto 
the screen at a landmark institu-
tion like the Michigan Theater is 
an entirely unique experience.

Though Lightworks is more 

casual, Baumgarten and Kalil 

shoot to make the M-Agination 
Film Festival a special occasion. 
The festivalgoers dress up for the 
event with a formal dinner this 
year at Sava’s beforehand. In addi-
tion, Baumgarten and Kalil hope 
to include intermission perfor-
mances by ComCo, the Michigan 
Pops Orchestra and other student 
groups that share a residence in 
the University Activities Center.

One of this year’s filmmakers is 

LSA senior Jameson Duggan, also 
a SAC major. Duggan’s M-Agi-
nation project in the Fall 2014 
semester was “Babysitter,” a short 
comedy sketch about a couple’s 
over-the-top interview process in 
their search for someone to care 
for their child.

“Last semester I was doing 

television production, which is 
mainly in the studio, but I didn’t 
have a production class that really 
allowed me to create a film,” Dug-
gan said of his decision to produce 
the film through M-Agination. “I 
had always heard about M-Agi-
nation but I had never tried it, and 
it seemed like a cool way to make 
a movie without having the class 
restrictions on content and time.”

During the production of “Bab-

ysitter,” Duggan worked with two 
M-Agination producers, who set 
up and recorded auditions and 
provided equipment. The club also 
hosted a writers’ workshop to help 
the directors rework their scripts 
to accomodate their relatively lim-

ited resources.

“In the original script, it called 

for a live dog,” Duggan said, “And 
I was like, ‘I don’t actually want to 
work with a live animal,’ so I talk-
ed with them about how we could 
still incorporate that aspect of it 
without having a live dog.”

While Duggan said that his own 

production went fairly smoothly, 
he mentioned one possible pitfall 
that out-of-class filmmakers can 
face.

“Since it’s not for class, since it’s 

for a club, people don’t really need 
to commit,” Duggan said. “On one 
hand it’s great because they’re just 
passionate about the project and 
they want to learn, because it’s not 
all film students, but then, on the 
other side, there’s nothing really 
deterring people from, on the day 
of, being like, ‘Oh, just kidding. I’m 
really busy.’ ”

Duggan said he was luckily able 

to sidestep this problem because 
of his easy-to-shoot script and his 
interested and committed core vol-
unteers.

Doyle, on the other hand, had 

his shoot pushed back a month 
when one of the project’s main 
actors dropped out.

“That’s what being a producer 

is,” he said, “Finding sudden hur-
dles and having to get over them.”

However, working outside of 

class can also be a change of pace 
for SAC majors that can give them 
diverse viewpoints and take off 
some pressure.

“Having that extra mile outside 

the course work is really what lets 
us work outside of the pressure of 
working for a grade and also allows 
us to work with a lot of people 
who aren’t SAC majors, so we get 
a wider range of people to collabo-
rate with within M-Agination,” 
Kalil said.

***

The SAC major officially began 

in 2005, when LSA’s Film and 
Video Program was transformed 
into a new department. While 
M-Agination isn’t just a club made 
up of SAC majors, many of its core 
members and participants wish 
to work in the industry in some 
way after graduation.

Baumgarten is currently work-

ing on her Honors Production 
Thesis, a 30-minute sitcom called 
“Co-Education.” She would like 

to go into producing, and she’s 
planning to move to Los Angeles 
after graduation.

Doyle is undeclared, but is cur-

rently taking SAC classes. He 
would like to move up in M-Agina-
tion and said he “definitely” wants 
to work in the film industry.

Meanwhile, Kalil said that 

entering the film industry is “kind 
of a crapshoot,” but he’s looking 
to build his portfolio and take his 
skills into the advertising indus-
try.

Duggan also hopes to enter the 

industry. With the fast approach-
ing Jan. 25 deadline for submis-
sions for M-Aginations winter 
productions, he’ll likely offer 
assistance with camera work or 
other jobs, rather than directing 
a production.

When describing what kind of 

film he would like to make, Dug-
gan said, “I want to make a movie 
that people enjoy. There are plenty 
of movies that I would say, ‘That 
was a great movie. I really appre-
ciate it, but I don’t really have any 
interest in watching it again.’ So, I’d 
much rather make a movie that was 
less critically acclaimed, but that 
people like to watch over and over 
again, and people like to quote.”

He named “Mean Girls,’ “The 

Perks of Being a Wallflower” and 
“She’s the Man” as examples of 
these kinds of movies.

Even if they don’t want to go on 

to work in the industry, the passion 
that these students bring to the 
film projects is invaluable. “With 
M-Agination, there’s a lot of differ-
ently skilled people coming togeth-
er to collaborate,” Kalil said. “A lot 
of people who aren’t studying film, 
but have a lot of experience in arts 
or in camera. There’s a lot more 
perspective collaborating on some-
thing through M-Agination than 
there is just doing it by myself.”

M-AGINATION
From Page 1B

VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily

M-Agination holds its annual film festival at the Michigan Theater.

TRAILER REVIEW

The camera pans down the 

barrel of a sniper rifle until it 
meets the eye of Chris Kyle, the 
most 
lethal 

sniper 
in 

U.S. history. 
He’s got his 
finger on the 
trigger, peer-
ing down the 
scope; it is 
he who must 
watch 
over 

his brothers in arms on the 
ground. In his Texas drawl he 
informs his superiors that he’s 
spotted a woman who appears 
to have handed a grenade to a 
child, not 10 years old. He asks 
for confirmation, which his 
superiors cannot give — “It’s 
your call,” they say. It is Kyle 
who decides who lives and 
who dies, it is Kyle who must 
play God.

This trailer for Clint East-

wood’s (“Jersey Boys”) lat-
est proves the perfect teaser, 
expressing the soul of the 
film without giving away 
any of its action. We sense 
the intensity of not just this 
particular scenario but the 
intensity of Kyle himself, this 
guardian angel, this angel of 
death. Resurrected by Brad-
ley Cooper (“Guardians of 
the Galaxy”), this version of 

the American war hero, tragi-
cally gunned down in 2013, is 
stoic yet sincere, brutish yet 
caring. “American Sniper” 
looks to be a return to form 
for Eastwood and another 
critical success in the blos-
soming career of Cooper. Not 
since “The Hurt Locker” has 
a film about Iraq seemed so 
urgent, and equally timeless.

-JAMIE BIRCOLL

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

SINGLE REVIEW

Canadian duo Purity Ring 

released the single “Begin 
Again,” in anticipation of 
their 
newest 

album Anoth-
er 
Eternity, 

set 
to 
drop 

in 
March. 

The 
group 

released 
“Push Pull” in 
2014, then just 
a hint at their 
latest project.

“Begin Again” gives fans a 

much clearer taste of what is 
to come, as well as showcasing 
much of what the duo is gen-
erally known for. The sound 
is oddly celestial, building to 
multiple instrumental breaks 
with full, potent sounds – the 
kind of thing best listened 
to loudly, in dark, crowded 
spaces. Layers include ring-
ing bass, sparse piano and 
crisp down beats throughout 
the chorus.

The vocals, as always, are 

haunting and slightly creepy. 
Megan James’s delivery is 
calm and delicate, entirely 

contrasting the more force-
ful and wobbling beats of the 
track. Lyrics draw on oth-
erworldly imagery, likening 
a lover to the moon and its 
lunar orbit. The track itself 
seems to be traveling along 
its own circular path, as it 
both begins and ends with 
the same lyrics. This affect is 
enhanced with astrologically 
charged lyrics and a round 
sound, not to mention the 
title itself.

While the track closely 

adheres 
to 
the 
standard 

sounds of Purity Ring, it 
is neither predictable nor 
stylistically overdone. The 
track is dynamic. The layers 
of sound seem to be in con-
stant motion, making “Begin 
Again” a strong and seam-
less addition to Purity Ring’s 
small but impressive body of 
work.

-CARLY SNIDER

4AD

A

‘Begin 
Again’

Purity Ring

4AD

A

‘American 
Sniper’

Warner Bros. 
Pictures

WE KNOW 

KANYE WEST 

AND 
PAUL 

MCCARTNEY

@MICHIGANDAILY

WHAT’S NEWON

FOR THE LATEST ENTERTAINMENT 
NEWS, READ THE DAILY ARTS BLOG

“Film combined 
two passions.”

The passion that 
these students 

bring ... is 
invaluable.

