Starbright Production presented its first short film, “Roll the Dice,” on July 31.
The film is under five minutes long and showcases a range of genres, including comedy, action and drama, as well as the intense emotions that come with playing a game like Dungeons & Dragons.
“I had done a little bit of filming in high school, and then after the Marine Corps, I got out and moved here,” writer and director Logan McJunkin said. “I got involved with Starbright with the theater, and I was doing plays. Then Kailey [Rice] asked if I wanted to do a summer camp to do film.”
Writing the script was not a difficult task for McJunkin, who, on his own time, plays Dungeons & Dragons with his friends.
The film had a stacked cast of summer camp kids, who not only acted but also helped McJunkin plan shots and set up scenes.
Jojo Miner plays Mickey, who is seen running late in the opening scene to get to his friend’s house. His character in D&D was a barbarian.
“My favorite part was that we had leftover Oreos,” Jojo said.
Hope Miner played Sam, who is described as one of the funny characters.
Ben Harrison played Ethan.
“I was known as the hungry guy,” Harrison said.
His character in D&D was a halfling half-dragon half-human.
“My favorite part was [when] I got to eat the Cheeto Puffs in the play,” Harrison said.
Hudson Arnold played Lucas, whom he described as one of the funny ones; in the D&D game, he was Sir Reginald, a Paladin.
In real life, Arnold has never played Dungeons & Dragons, but he enjoyed making new friends through the production.
Ryker Handlin played Maya, “a slightly smart girl who always was the voice of reason,” Handlin described.
Handlin’s favorite part of the production was a blooper scene included at the end of the film premiere of Jojo Miner’s character, Mickey.
Conner Valentine played Jason, who was the Dungeon Master in the game.
“I love doing the ogre's voice,” Valentine said.
Kelsey Neyman and Kailey Rice made guest appearances.
Staying true to form in showbiz, McJunkin and his cast were working on a tight deadline.
“We only had like 20 hours over the course of a week,” McJunkin said. “So, we had to really lock in. And I had to plan shots. And their kids, they like to have fun and mess around. And you can't sit there and not let them have any fun. So you're going to have to work around that, too. It was a good time.”
He added that he enjoyed teaching them about camera angles, continuity and having them film the opening scene.
“I just really enjoyed watching them figure it out because it's a large shift between stage acting and film acting, because when you're stage acting, the entire crowd's way out here and you have to really show them,” McJunkin said. “But when you're film acting, the audience is right here, and you don't have to do as much. You act differently.”
McJunkin shared that he would like to add an editing summer camp next year as well.
“I'm really hoping to do more, and eventually I'll ... do bigger films, and I'll open it up to the community, and then maybe if it gets big enough, we'll ... enter into film festivals,” McJunkin said.
The short film is available for free on the Starbright Music and Performing Arts YouTube channel; it’s titled “Roll The Dice” [Presented by Starbright Productions].
Contributing writer and photographer Corbin Fitch assisted with this report.
