“Action!”

The actor slides open the creaky window and peers inside. He looks over his shoulder at the camera and delivers his line in a hushed voice.

“I don’t think anyone’s in there.”

But that statement is far from true. Gaffers, grips, sound engineers and makeup artists sit in hushed silence just off camera. The cast and crew are current and former KU film students working to produce director Franco Leng’s first feature film since he graduated from the University in 2008. The film, tentatively titled Pwned, is about feuding hardcore video gamers, and is being filmed entirely in Lawrence.

More films are being made here every semester, and the trend only seems to be growing as students opt to stay in Lawrence to make their first movies rather than flocking to the coast to get a job in Hollywood.

“I hope part of the reason they’re not leaving is that they’ve seen other filmmakers not do that,” says Kevin Willmott, associate professor of theater and film and director of C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America and Bunker Hill.

“One of the things that Matt Jacobson and I have tried to stress is that you don’t have to leave,” Willmott continues. “You just need to make a really terrific film and that film can take you where you want to go.” Matt Jacobson is another associate professor of theater and film at the University.

Willmott says it’s much easier to make films at home, where there’s a base of support and a film community to connect with.

Jeremy Osbern, a 2004 graduate of the University’s film program, says that while there were great filmmakers in Lawrence when he graduated, there weren’t very many. That’s why Osbern opted to stay in Lawrece and start his company, Through A Glass Productions, where he works as a director, director of photography and gaffer on various films, music videos and television commercials in the Midwest.

“Lawrence is such an amazing arts town,” Osbern says. “There’s art everywhere. In some ways, we’re almost oversaturated with art. Everywhere you go there’s art on the walls or a musician playing or a poetry reading. It’s a great town that supports art and all the different endeavors that people do.”

Muriel Green, Arcadia senior in theater and film, co-wrote her first documentary as a student while working part-time for Through A Glass Productions. The film, titled Medicine Under Canvas, tells the stories of doctors and nurses from KU Medical Center who served together in World War II field hospitals. It will premiere in Kansas City, Mo., at the Screenland Theatre on Nov. 11.

“I’d like to stay in Lawrence,” Green says. “I think there are a lot of neat stories to tell in Kansas.”

Willmott agrees, citing his ability to work directly with the Kickapoo and Pottawattamie tribes as just one way local filmmakers are able to take advantage of things Hollywood just doesn’t have access to. Willmott is nearing completion of his third feature film, The Only Good Indian, which is about the forced assimilation of Native Americans into white society during the origins of modern-day Haskell Indian Nations University.

“I think it’s one of the things that independent film can do that Hollywood’s just not going to do,” Wilmott says. “Hollywood’s not going to make that film, at least not in the way we can. You take advantage of their lack of interest in certain areas and you market that.”

This burgeoning film scene in Lawrence is also a result of the assistance many up-and-coming filmmakers receive from the student organization KU Filmworks.

“Filmworks is designed to get film students, along with filmmakers in the area, involved in film production in and around Lawrence,” says John Tenholder, Topeka senior and Filmworks treasurer.

Scott Root, Abilene junior and KU Filmworks president, says more students are staying in Kansas because they have a network of people here who are passionate about filmmaking. Root also cites the declining cost of equipment as a reason, as it enables the average filmmaker to afford cameras on par with those of major film studios.

In June, with the help of Student Senate, Root says Filmworks was able to purchase a new high-definition digital camera that can dramatically improve their films’ quality and also decreases the cost of recording media.

Leng says his involvement with Filmworks led him to Los Angeles to work on a film directed by former members of Filmworks. He says the experience opened his eyes to what it takes to make it on a film set.

“They schooled us pretty good,” Leng says. “They know that if you do hope to go to the coast that it’s tough on your own, being from Kansas. They were very nice and kind and helped us transition. Once I’d been to L.A. and come back, I knew what I had to do.”

Ryan Danbro, former KU student, was one of the four original members of Filmworks. His most recent project is a short film called Barroom Heroes, which is about superheroes coping with the expectations placed on them by society. The film is currently in post-production.

“I’ve heard this phrase so many times that it’s almost a cliché to me now, but film is a collaborative art form,” Danbro says. “You need to know people if you’re going to make a decent project. You need to know people who are talented and not difficult, and that’s why Filmworks is such a great concept. You’re with people who want to make movies. You should really do some stuff in your small pond before you think about going to a bigger one.”

Muriel Green is no stranger to Filmworks, and she credits much of her success to the organization.

“I was really involved with KU Filmworks when I first got here, and it was one of those sad moments when I realized you had to go on to the next step,” Green says. “I think that’s a credit to the organization, because they really give you the networking and advice and experience to push you further in your craft.”

Green says KU Filmworks enabled her to gain greater production experience than she would have received in the classroom alone, which explains the organization’s growing appeal.

“Filmworks gives you the chance to jump right into making movies on group projects and get your feet wet,” Green says. “And it has grown. I heard there were like 50 people at the last meeting. The organization has really blossomed from what I’ve seen.”

Filmworks is open to all KU students or graduates in the Lawrence area, and you don’t have to be a film student to join.

“It’s not just people who are interested in directing and camera,” John Tenholder says. “We have English majors who are interested in writing scripts, we have theater students who are interested in acting. It’s for people who are interested making films in all their aspects.”