Recently, a job applicant skeptically walked through Elmhurst University’s campus to meet with Senior Director of Communications, Desiree Chen, when she wondered whether she might be lost.
“She was trying to find our building and she was like, ‘Am I in the right place? Because that sign says Olympia High School,'” Chen laughed, pointing around the campus. “But then I got to say, ‘oh we’re filming a movie!'”
For a few weeks in August, Elmhurst University logos were temporarily swapped for banners of Olympia High, a fictional school from the upcoming movie, The Class, starring Anthony Michael Hall and Debbie Gibson.
“I’ve never been on a film set before, so this was my first experience actually,” said Ashley Liljeberg, one of 12 film students at Elmhurst University who worked as an intern in the production department during filming, handling anything from equipment lockups to classic coffee runs.
“I did any task that needed to be done,” she said. “One day I got to be in the classroom while they were outside the classroom and got to call the roll on my own, making sure cameras are rolling and lining up for the director to call action.”
Liljeberg is a junior at Elmhurst University and an interdisciplinary student in the school’s digital media program, led by associate professor Kristyn Jo Benedyk.
Benedyk previously worked with The Class’s cinematographer Pete Piaggi many years ago at DePaul. He reached out via text to see if she could point him in the direction of a Chicago area suburban shooting location. Two other movies had already filmed on Elmhurst University’s expansive and attractive grounds in 2021 alone.
“They fell in love with the campus,” she said.
Benedyk worked with the producer and director to line up film shoot needs with students who were interested in getting onboard as part of an unpaid internship that would count toward the experiential learning requirement for the program. Twelve students submitted a resume and because there weren’t more than a couple people interested in one area, they took all 12.
“I’m really proud of the students,” Benedyk said. “I heard directly from the producers and directors and they had nothing but positives to say, ‘can we hire them after this? I said, ‘of course you can, I hope that you hire them!'”
The film — pegged as the modern day “Breakfast Club” — takes place over one day at school where a group of high schoolers, played by actors including Hannah Kepple (Cobra Kai) and Charlie Gillespie (Julie and the Phantoms), come in to take a makeup exam they either missed taking or failed.
“By the end of the day, they find their own values, betrayals and love within themselves and their classmates,” the IMDb description reads.
While the new era of coming of age stories includes social media and political correctness, shooting a film in this pandemic era involves daily temperature checks, thrice weekly COVID-19 tests, masks and shields and a three page COVID-19 safety booklet.
“Technically the day you were getting tested, you were already cleared for and they were testing for the next few days,” Liljeberg explained. “Masks were required at all times, but if you were outside you could wear a wrist band specifying you were fully vaccinated.”
The last week of shooting, the actors were required to wear face shields in between takes with concerns over the delta variant shifting protocol.
The entire movie was filmed on campus over a four week span — five including post production.
Liljeberg and her co-interns worked 5 days a week, 12 hours a day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“Before shooting started I sent the students an email with tips and what to expect . . . if you get there at 6:30 that’s a half-hour around coffee and breakfast you could be talking to the director or cinematographer,” Benedyk said. “I told them you’re going to get to see these really amazing things, but you might also have to get someone coffee. You should recognize that every single act, every task that happens on a film set goes into the making of the larger project.”
Film editing and post production are where Liljeberg’s career aspirations fall and in a still mostly-virtual world, the experience is something she hopes will take her far.
“I feel lucky, I think it’ll help down the line that while I was only in college I got to experience working on an actual film set,” she said. “And now having done it, I know what I’m more interested in and what I’m not interested in, but I went in open to everything.”
Liljeberg also had a little face time with Hall during wardrobe fitting.
“It was really cool, there is so much chaos on set so you get a more intimate interaction with actors before production starts. It’s crazy to think I was with these people for an entire month,” she said.
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Benedyk added that she hopes her students take invaluable lessons from the film shoot, but being a good person goes even farther than technical skills.
“When you’re working on a film shoot, in this case 12 hours a day, you want to work with people who are kind,” she said. “I’m also a producer, I’d rather hire someone who knows less about cameras and lenses, but is a kind person who brings a good energy to set than someone who knows a little bit more about cameras and lenses but brings an attitude to set.”
When the movie comes out, those familiar with the campus can look for scenes in the Old Main building, the cafeteria, on and outside the football field and Liljeberg herself.
“I’m really excited for a few reasons, one I got to be an extra in the movie, so if those parts make it, it would be interesting to see,” Liljeberg laughed. “I’m on the poms team here and they needed some dancers practicing. I got to do a walking background scene with Charlie Gillespie and Anthony Michael Hall. I was just there, my moment of fame.”
The Class is expected to be released in spring 2022.