Eyeing the Big Time, Two Carleton Students Make a Short Feature Film
BY BRANDI BRANHAM
Listen to this PODCAST of “Nova Roma” filmmakers Alexander Cooney and Max Silver, interviewed by Christopher Mathew Burt and Brandi Branham.
One summer, two talented friends with time on their hands, what comes next?
Alexander Cooney and Max Silver, two Carleton juniors, have recently finished four intensive days filming on the Carleton and St. Olaf College campuses and in St. Paul for a 15-minute feature film called “Nova Roma,” about what the world would be like if the Roman Empire had never fallen.
Cooney, fascinated with alternate history, had long expressed his internal fictional worlds through drawings, fiction writing and other media for many years. Last summer he decided the time was right to do it in movie form and teamed up with classmate Silver. Both are majors in Carleton’s Cinema and Media Studies program.
The two are drawing on their own skills as well as those of fellow film majors and actors and other film industry workers in the Twin Cities. Marshalling these resources and finally deploying them for the intensive shoot was one of the most difficult things about working on this film, both the filmmakers said.
“You can prepare as much as you want, but eventually you’re going into battle against the forces of chaos,” Cooney said. “That’s what film making is. It’s this creative battle.”
Silver says he hopes the film will be done some time in Carleton’s spring term, and assures that when it’s done, everyone will know where it can be seen.
Silver and Cooney hope ‘Nova Roma’ will demonstrate their talents to film industry leaders and help them get film careers up and running.
Cooney is all smiles when asked how he feels about having finally turned his alternate history fantasy into real life — almost. “It feels amazing,” he said.
“It’s tough to describe, but I don’t think I’m quite there yet,” Silver said. “We reached a big goal, and we’re about two thirds done with the creative work.”
When he first stepped foot into the room where volunteers had created all the props and costumes for the film, he was overwhelmed, Cooney added.
“When I finally walked in there for the first time, it was like I just had a baby,” he said.
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