[Published 5/7/10]
For sophomores Anders Johnson and Jarin Foster, fathers of the rising Providia Studios, it all started in 2006 with a simple act of providence.
“I was searching Limewire for Usher’s ‘Yeah,’” said Johnson. “I came across this song called ‘Yeah Toast.’ Jarin was mad into toast at the time, like it was all he would eat, which is why he’s so skinny – so I showed it to him and we made a video.”
Ever since the “Yeah Toast” video started getting 2,000 hits a day on YouTube, Providia has been a creative outlet for Johnson and Foster. Now they want to expand it into something a little more like a real studio.
Although Providia is not Gordon’s film studio, nor is it officially tied to the school in any way, the Providia tag has appeared on several Gordon-related projects such as this year’s Gordon Globes entry “Like a Scot” and multiple Golden Goose videos.
“We enjoy producing videos a community can appreciate based on social means and inside jokes,” said Johnson.
The duo just finished a promotional video urging students to take advantage of Finish The Course. Without giving too much away, Johnson said Foster makes an appearance as an encouraging old man. Students will have to go to chapel to hear the punch line.
Johnson and Foster will also team up with the Gordon College Student Association next year. This has led them to consider which projects should get the Providia stamp.
Though they look forward to the partnership, Johnson and Foster are leaning toward selective branding. Only creative projects will come out of Providia; the rest will come out of the goodness of their hearts (and/or the pleas of their pockets).
What Foster calls “our most monumental project yet” falls squarely in the former category. “Reciprokative Contackt” is a 10-minute action/adventure/thriller about two companies that are fighting over a green energy device called the deluge reactor.
Johnson and Foster have always wanted to shoot an action movie like this. Dreaming it up was easy. “We see eye to eye in spite of the height difference,” said Johnson. “But Reciprokative Contackt is really Jarin’s brainchild.”
“But Anders is like the uncle that raised it,” added Foster.
Pulling it off was the hard part. There were more people and more props than the team is used to. They had to ask the Beverly police for permission to use air soft guns in town after the Gloucester police told them “no.” Reciprokative Contackt is the first movie they fully scripted and storyboarded before production, a process that lasted three weeks to a month.
“And we got a [high definition] camera from Laura [Davis, the newest Providia team member], so it’ll be sweet now!” said Foster.
Filming ran eight hours on Saturday the 17th and 15 hours on Sunday the 18th. Foster estimates it will take him 50 hours to edit the 2.5 hours of footage collected over the weekend but still hopes to release the movie the weekend before finals at a premiere event in Ken Olsen Science Center.
“Providia is educational for us,” said Foster. “It’s about building up our skills and our portfolio to get into the industry.”
Elements of that portfolio can be viewed on Providia’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/ProvidiaStudios. Also keep an eye on their new website, ProvidiaStudios.com, as they flesh it out with content.
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