Cody Hoerig, a senior in the School of Communications, is the director of the University's first student-produced feature film, "Mercury Cycle," a psychological thriller which features a cast of professional actors from the New Haven area.
The film, which is being done as a Quinnipiac Film Society (QFS) project, was written by Vincent Grippi, a senior studying media production in the School of Communications. Grippi entered the script into the QFS script-writing contest. "Once I finished it I knew it, I knew it was something special," said Hoerig, president of QFS. "I had never read such a good script from a college student before and immediately knew I wanted to be a part of it."
QFS cast professional actors from New Haven and Hamden for lead roles, along with Quinnipiac students playing smaller parts. The group, including cast and student crew, spends an average of 20 to 40 hours per week filming. This is usually broken down into weekend sessions, each lasting for about 15 hours per day.
"A lot of the people who are working on this film are also students so this is a lot of time filming on top of their studies," said Hoerig. "I couldn't have been blessed with a better cast or crew."
The production takes place in several locations, including various locations in New York, Connecticut and on the Quinnipiac campus.
Hoerig plans to finish filming by the end of the summer. Even though he is graduating this year, he plans to come back with other crew members to work on editing.
"Hopefully this can be done by the fall," said Hoerig. "It's going to take a lot of time, but it will definitely be worth it."
Hoerig said the movie will be a psychological thriller."Expect to be taken on a ride," Hoerig said. "Expect to be transported into a world where time is trivial and the past, present and future are not set in stone. It's a place where anything can happen."