Let’s go to the movies: Students to premiere feature-length film

• Breanna Bennett / Sports Asst. Editor
• scrollarts@byui.edu

Steven Spielberg got his start with the release of The Last Gun in 1959. For Ron Howard, it was Grand Theft Auto. And for five aspiring filmmakers in Rexburg, it’s Five Days of Fire.

After nine months of writing, filming and editing, the five local filmmakers are ready for their movie’s debut. Piers Tueller, a freshman from Rexburg, Schyler Porter, a sophomore from Rexburg, Mason Stoddard, Max Daines and Taylor Barton, high school students in Rexburg, have spent almost nine months in the film’s production.

Five Days of Fire, set during World War II, centers on a platoon of soldiers who goes behind enemy lines on a mission. Along the way, they realize someone in their group is betraying them.

Tueller and Stoddard said they first thought of making a war movie after finishing a short film last spring.

We made a little movie called Pocket Watch that had a war scene in it. It came out decent, so we thought, Hey, let’s try to do an actual feature war movie, Stoddard said.

Pocket Watch, produced by Stoddard and another filmmaker Nicholas Moseley, won the Kiwanis Teen Film Festival last April. Stoddard and Moseley won scholarships to the Idaho Film and Television Institute’s director’s boot camp, headed by Gilligan’s Island’s Dawn Wells. The camp gave them the opportunity to learn from professionals and allowed them to get directing experience.

I just figured out what’s most important in a story and what’s the best way to get performances out of actors, Stoddard said.

Five Days of Fire runs about 90 minutes, which is over an hour longer than any other film they have made. Stoddard said he’s learned to be professional and work hard, but to also keep it fun.

That’s our goal, Stoddard said. To be serious enough, get beautiful stuff, and then go, Be-Yeah!

While the story itself is fictional, the film’s main focus is to portray the war as accurately as possible. Tueller and Porter spent hours shopping online and gathering props from local collectors who were willing to donate their equipment, keeping everything in the film authentic.

We’re trying to do historical fiction, not fantasy. It shows that we went to the research to find out what it was actually like, Porter said.

Porter also said making the film gave him a greater sense of patriotism and gratitude for the sacrifices soldiers have made to keep us free. He plays Captain Richard Casdorph in the movie—the name of his grandfather who served in the Korean War.

I wanted to use his name because it’s a respect for my grandpa. I wanted to show him that I care, Porter said. You get to feel kind of what your grandpa went through… using his name, wearing a uniform similar to his. I’ve gained a higher respect for my grandfather.

Devon Marrott, a Rexburg resident who plays Sam Podelski in Five Days of Fire, agreed with Porter.

It’s just made me appreciate soldiers that fought in these wars and soldiers that fight in wars today. And I don’t think their sacrifices should be taken for granted, Marrott said.

American Family Entertainment Center, located in Rexburg on Second East, will host the premiere Jan. 26 and 27. There will be two showings Friday at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., with continual screenings from 12 noon to 11 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $3 at the door both days, and DVDs will also be sold for $5.