Lake LaVerne’s chance to grace the silver screen has gone by the wayside.

The $2 million film, “The Private Public,” originally scheduled to be shot on the ISU campus in May, will now be filmed at Wayne State University in Wayne, Neb., due to concerns of ISU administrators that it would infringe on ISU trademarks.

The film’s screenwriters, ISU alumni Chad Calek and Justin Holstein, said the film was moved out of Ames when they became dissatisfied with the university’s restrictions on what exactly the filmmakers could shoot on campus.

“We were offered no support from the university in any way,” Calek said. “There was just too much crap, too much red tape to go through for three, four days to just shoot some exteriors of great shots on campus that we really liked.”

Juanita Lovejoy, director of the Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer, said the film’s producers were unreasonable in how much accommodation they expected from Iowa State.

“They wanted support from the university, which would have involved the use of university property for 22 days in a secured site with security,” Lovejoy said, “and we could not provide that.”

Lovejoy wrote a letter detailing the university’s official policy regarding filming on campus. Calek said he was upset by the letter.

“They sent us a letter, also, saying that there was a possibility that any of the on-campus places that we were going to shoot at, we might be charged a commercial fee, which I don’t understand at all, considering it is a state-owned facility,” he said.

Any person can film building exteriors on campus, as long as it is for private use, Lovejoy said, but it is university policy to require anyone who uses its trademarks and logos to purchase a license.

Calek and Holstein’s True Player Productions and Director Dana Altman’s North Sea Films had no intention of using the ISU logo.

“We just thought it was a beautiful campus, and it would be a great place to shoot the story because we went to school there and we could showcase the community,” Calek said. “I think it says College Town, U.S.A., like no other school I’ve ever been to.”

Calek said he had been told the university needed to approve all of the actual footage shot on campus, but Lovejoy insists her concerns were only trademark issues.

“They didn’t have to show us the film. [The shots in question] only related to our trademark, if they were going to do that, and the art on campus,” Lovejoy said.

Capturing the campus’ art on film might have been a problem because Iowa State has various contracts with several artists regarding how images of their work may be reproduced.

Lovejoy also said the university was concerned that filming would disrupt day-to-day business. Places needed for the crew and equipment to stay and potential traffic flow problems added to possible disturbances.

“We were also told that they didn’t believe there was any place on campus that we could shoot that wouldn’t be intrusive to everyday campus life,” Calek said.

Lovejoy said the content of the script was never an issue.

“We didn’t even talk about that,” she said.

Barbara Mack, associate professor of journalism and mass communications, said the process of filming probably would have been disruptive.

Mack, a practicing attorney, said the university has the right to request that outside organizations obtain a parade permit for this sort of activity, she said.

“The film certainly could have applied for one, and I think probably gotten one if the university could be assured that its safety concerns would be met,” she said.

Mack said it is a shame that the filmmakers and ISU administrators couldn’t have worked out a compromise.

“I think it is sad that the university could not reach an agreement with two ISU alums who were creating the movie,” he said. “It would have been a nice opportunity, but frankly, I don’t know that it would make or break anyone’s career.”

Calek said his main concern was that the student body and the community were going to miss out on the motion picture’s benefits.

“How many other $2 million pictures can just give students the opportunity to walk on board and say some lines in the film or actually work on it?” he asked. “Our intention from the beginning was to make it all in Iowa.”