Senior Project
A film student's time at Southern Adventist University is marked by two major projects. First is the Freshman Film: Students are individually thrown into producing a short movie which involves finding a script, director, and all the other necessary crew members from a pool of upperclassmen. More often than not, the finished film is destined to end up as a "learning experience" and not much more. On the other end of a film student's education is the Senior Project: Seasoned students can choose from a variety of tracks to hone in on a specialty. Often, groups will form as directors team up with cinematographers and producers.
Nick, Dillan, and I agreed early on to collaborate on our Senior Project but struggled to settle on what type of film to make. By the end of the summer of 2014, we still had no leads. As time counted down to the last minute, Nick got an email. One of the Visual Arts faculty, Zach Gray, mentioned a testimony he heard during Collegedale Seventh-Day Adventist Church's "Connect" service. Ed Rusk, one of the members, briefly shared an experience he had while racing an Ironman distance triathlon in Canada. During the testimony, he emphasized how the race brought new understanding to his Christian walk. This message resonated with the three of us and with no other options, we jumped into the deep end.
