‘Private Public’ filming would have provided opportunities for students

Kyle Moss

I don’t know whether any of you caught the article on the front page of Friday’s Daily informing us of how the $2 million film “The Private Public” will not be shot on campus, but I want to tell you how upset you should be about it.

The movie was written by two former Iowa State students and also involves ISU alumnus Corey Moss as public relations director. It is being directed by movie guru Robert Altman’s grandson, Dana Altman. The film will be starring three former “Real World” cast members and an actress from “Baywatch.”

I’m not saying that it’s a huge honor to have these people in our presence, but “The Real World” is the most popular show on MTV and “Baywatch,” well, there aren’t many guys out there who don’t like this show.

The movie was to provide many ISU students with opportunities to work on all aspects of the film ,including possible roles in the movie and the grip jobs.

But for some damn reason, the powers that be decided it wouldn’t be possible to have this movie on our beautiful campus. Instead, the students at Wayne State University will enjoy the opportunities that should belong to us.

The university threw out some crap about security and parking, basically stuff that could easily be worked out with a little bit of effort. They said the film’s producers were unreasonable in how much accommodation they expected from ISU.

But let’s face it, would the university have to do a damn thing? Nope.

Having a movie crew set up and work would actually be less distracting and annoying than all of the construction we have. And is there any problem with where all the construction people are parking? No.

The filmmakers would come in, give students cool stuff to do, shoot the movie and leave, eventually giving Iowa some positive entertainment recognition. At the moment, the only popular entertainment representative from Iowa is Slipknot.

How embarrassing is it to be in another state and tell someone you’re from Iowa, only to hear “Iowa? That’s where Slipknot is from!” Let’s get something cool to come out of here.

Think about this for a second. One of the people who wrote the film is Chad Calek, a controversial columnist who once wrote for the Daily and pissed off a lot of people. Could the university be getting him back for that? I wouldn’t put it past them.

The university says their decision has nothing to do with the content of the script, but you have to wonder. Part of the movie deals with a professor sexually harassing a student, which is similar to what happened with an ISU professor back in 1997, coincidentally when Calek and the other screenwriter were at Iowa State.

Do the people that make the decisions have any clue what the students think about these issues? Do they care? Apparently not. A large portion of the student body would love to have a movie shot on their campus, especially one with actual famous people in it. Sure, not everyone would want to work on it, but just being able to have it here would be cool.

This bugs me so much for a number of reasons. I love entertainment, that’s why I do what I do. I love acting, and I actually had a part with my name on it. Who knows if I’ll be able drive out to Wayne State?

Sure, there are pros and cons to every situation, but in this case the positives totally outweigh the negatives. The movie would be a hands-on learning experience for students interested in filmmaking, and it could end up being some people’s claim to fame.

If we can somehow get the university to lighten up, there may still be a chance the campus will see the making of this movie or part of it.

Otherwise, when it becomes an Oscar pick, we’ll all be kicking the university in the ass.


Kyle Moss is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.