Northern Kentucky University students brought their acting chops to the Landrum Academic Center Feb. 20 for a shot to be a movie star. One by one, students, mostly theatre majors, auditioned for a part in one of several short films for the College of Informatics.

“Each short film has a character portraying one of the majors in the College of Informatics,” said Chris Strobel, professor of communications.

Strobel, the film’s executive producer, described how the film will be put together.

“In the end, each short film will come together to make one whole short film. The film shows how each major works together to complete a task,” he said.

The films will cover the majors in the college, which include business informatics, computer science, computer information technology, electronic media and broadcasting (EMB), journalism, media informatics, public relations and speech communication.

“Strobel got a few people together to see what could be done about making a film for the college and what the majors in it are all about,” senior EMB major and director of the film Tyler Reid said.

“This film is intended to put the NKU College of Informatics on the map,” Reid said.

He noted that only a few colleges of informatics exist in the country and the films will help convince some prospective students to join the program at NKU.

Each segment of the film, titled “Project CoI” (pronounced “coy”), will run about five minutes long. It centers on a team of programming specialists who have to break into the database of an information corporation known as “CoI,” to repair and release a new project.

“The project the team works on in the film is a new way to deliver media, information, and communication to the world,” said Alex Day, senior EMB major, as well as writer, producer and editor of the film.

The film will promote the College of Informatics in an “entertaining and educational way,” Reid said.

“The old ways of promoting a college need to change,” Day said. “So what were looking to do is to make a much cooler, more aesthetically pleasing way to promote the college.”

The film should be completed and on the College of Informatics Web site by November 2008.

“The idea is to put each segment on the web page of the major it is about,” Day said. “So for example, when you go to the page for journalism, you can watch the part of the movie that shows what the journalism character does in the story.

Day mentioned that watching all the film in order won’t be necessary. “You don’t have to watch all parts of the film to completely understand what is going on,” Day said. ” Each part makes sense on its own. You can watch whichever parts you want and it’s still entertaining and informational.”

Filming starts in March. A majority of it will be shot on campus, though the rest of the shooting locations has yet to be determined.

Reid mentioned that he has more than just the Web site planned for the film. “We are talking about putting it on the NKU tank buses,” Reid said. “I would also like to enter it in some film festivals.”

However, at the end of the day, Reid said, the film is for NKU’s betterment.

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