![\"Clark](\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Clark_Reaping2.jpg\")
<\/a>For the average budding filmmaker, such an undertaking might be all consuming, but for Clark, who is an honorable mention all-conference linebacker on the 12-1 Wabash football team that advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA DIII playoffs, much of \u201cReaping Words\u201d was produced in between his gridiron obligations.<\/p>\n
Click Here for a Link to Clark’s Film<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The idea to build a screenplay came to him in July. He wrote about 70 percent of the script during football training camp. By the Wittenberg game (Clark references weeks by the opponent faced), the script was completed and following an abbreviated preproduction period \u2013 a month of work in a week, Clark says \u2013 shooting started in October. The film\u2019s final scene was shot during Monon Bell Week, and he edited in spurts during the Little Giants\u2019 playoff run.<\/p>\n To pull this off, Clark had a dedicated crew of five to assist, but spent much of his time planning shots and editing the script as he went along, essentially leaving only Friday and Saturday nights to rehearse his lines before shooting most Sundays.<\/p>\n He points to the final scene where he and his on-screen mom (played by his real-life mom, Terra McMillian) talk on a bench in the Arboretum. It was shot during Fall Break, so no other students were around. But the schedule had to be kept. Clark lined up the shots, got the cameras and audio rolling, and often ran into position to deliver his lines. Scene ends, reset the cameras, and repeat.<\/p>\n \u201cWearing so many hats at the same time was pretty difficult,\u201d said the product of Higley, AZ, \u201cespecially when trying to act because I was also a director, producer, and writer. If a line doesn\u2019t work, or I have to find this prop, that affected my acting performance.\u201d<\/p>\n While Clark\u2019s original goal for the project was to produce something for his acting portfolio \u2013 he\u2019s appeared on the Wabash stage multiple times as well \u2013 he never lost sight of the inspiration for the project. The struggle represented in the film mirrors his efforts to get his film made while fulfilling his obligations as a student and teammate.<\/p>\n \u201cThat struggle was the inspiration,\u201d he said. \u201cThe drive comes from your heart, from your passion, and the idea came from the struggle in trying to establish myself. I want to act and would love to direct.\u201d<\/p>\n Clark says that \u201cReaping Words\u201d has taught him the value of collaboration.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel good about this project,\u201d he said. \u201cI learned how important other people are in the production. I now appreciate all of the roles like cinematographer, lighting director, props, and producers. I have an idea how massive the effort is in films. The list of credits in a regular movie makes so much more sense.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have a vision, you definitely want to foster it, but it\u2019s good to let others share in that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Six months of work boiled down to 23 minutes. \u201cReaping Words,\u201d the film that A.J. Clark \u201916 wrote, produced, directed and starred in, represents six months of eye-opening work for his THE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Clark_Reaping2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2718"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2759,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions\/2759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>