Stephanie Spector could not get the image of a day-lily out of her mind.
About a year ago, she penned her first screenplay for a contest at Roanoke College. But she needed a central image The day-lily dawned on her. She and her father often take walks together in parks in their New Jersey town.
One June day several years ago, they happened upon a day-lily festival. Spector remembers the images of day-lilies sticking out of test tubes, and the significance of a day – each day-lily blossom survives only a day.
Her idea for “Day-lily Day” bloomed – literally.
The film, which features a young couple, a tragedy and a day-lily festival, will debut on Saturday, April 16 at 8 p.m. in Roanoke’s Wortmann Ballroom. The 10-minute film will premiere along with others that are part of Basically Tarantino, a spring film contest at Roanoke.
“Day-lily Day” also will play at Roanoke’s Grandin Theatre on Thursday, April 21 at 7 p.m.
All showings are free and donations of certain items will be accepted for the Roanoke Valley SPCA (A dog at the SPCA appears in one scene of “Day-lily Day.”)
Spector, a creative writing major at Roanoke who loves movies, particularly foreign films, had never written a screenplay before trying her hand at it a year ago. After hearing about the contest at Roanoke, Spector, whose passion is writing poetry, picked up two books about screenwriting and composed her first screenplay draft during winter break. Her words and the story began to flow.
A few months later, during the spring semester at Roanoke, Spector was chosen as one of three winners of a screenwriting contest that several College faculty members judged.
“I was struck by how extraordinary it [Spector’s screenplay] was,” said Joe Boucher ’87, a former Hollywood producer who at the time had visited the College for a short-term stint to teach screenwriting. This academic year, Roanoke introduced a Screen Studies concentration.
Boucher, who now is director of the Colket Center and Student Activities at the College, said Spector’s screenplay was better than 90 percent of what he had seen in Hollywood.
“It was a simple idea that was so well communicated. It has an element of loss and dealing with loss that was so clearly demonstrated in a way that you can relate to. ”
Joe Boucher, director of the Colket Center and Student Activities at Roanoke
“You can’t make a good movie from a bad screenplay,” Boucher added.
At the time, Spector didn’t know that her story was headed for the big screen. But that summer, Dr. Martha Kuchar, chair of Roanoke’s English department, emailed Spector to ask if she would like to apply for a grant from the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges. The $5,000 grant would fund a student project. Would Spector be interested in using the money to turn her screenplay into a movie?
Spector applied for the grant, eager to give film-making a try, though she didn’t know what to expect.
Once back on campus, she began scheduling meetings, reserving spaces for filming and more, with the help of Boucher, the film’s advisor, and other students interested in the process.
“This is a large undertaking,” Spector said.
She hosted campus auditions for the movie’s two male and female speaking roles. Out of the 10 to 15 students who auditioned, Spector chose Lyndee Zeller ’16 and Omari Chancellor ’17.
In the story, Zeller is pregnant with the couple’s first child.
“Their chemistry together was so great,” Spector said.
There are several other adult actors and actresses in the film, including Dr. Mark Miller, Roanoke History professor who plays a horticulturist, and Spector herself, who makes a cameo appearance as a nurse. Other cast members are Jessica Matera ’18 who plays Zeller’s co-worker, Nicholas Wolf ’16 as a photographer, Diane Montgomery, a past visiting director for Theatre Roanoke College who plays a doctor, and Emma Kessler ’16, another nurse.
Zoe Larson-Harris, daughter of Roanoke professors Drs. Wendy and Marwood Larson-Harris, plays a girl in a horticultural center scene.
The characters do not have names.
The filming took place during an intense two weekends in February at several spots across campus and at Carilion Clinic’s Roanoke Community Hospital. The crew spent entire days and many hours filming, even re-filming some scenes 10 to 15 times to perfect them. Spector stayed up most of the night and early morning of the first filming day, decorating the set inside the Monterey House on campus.
A core group of about 15 Roanoke students helped with the entire filming process, taking on the roles of camera crew, sound and lighting team, script supervisors and more. Steve Mason ’91 of Red Velocity, a Roanoke film company, also volunteered. Spector was director.
She said it was a challenge to shift roles from film writer to director. All of the sudden, she was directing the crew. Writing is a solitary experience, Spector said, compared with film-making, which is a team effort.
“As director, I needed to assemble and lead my team so that we created the best story possible, and that was new for me,” she said.
The last day of filming at Community Hospital perhaps was most intense for the film team. The crew used a five day-old baby in the scene, but at first, they thought they may have to use a doll, lathered with oil to appear as a newborn.
One scene was particularly emotional for Zeller, who has to cry during an agonizing moment.
“I’ve never actually cried before on scene,” said Zeller, who has performed in theater in the past. “Everything was so somber. Once it started, the tears were falling. It was really real.”
Since the filming, the past few months have been filled with editing and polishing scenes to create the complete “Day-lily Day” movie.
Daniel Osbourne ’17, a musician, even stepped in to write background music on an acoustic guitar for the film’s scores.
Ultimately, the day-lily flower stands as a fitting metaphor for the film, drawing the story’s message back to nature and life, Spector said.
“There is new life occurring all of the time,” she said. “It gives people the opportunity to survive tragedy.”
