Film and television senior Megan Eisert clicked through set photos from her most recent film production “Tick,” reminiscing as if it was a family photo album. With ease, she named each crew member, their role and so on.
“I don’t want anybody to ever just feel like a number on a page. I don’t want you to think that I’m not going to know your name,” Eisert said. “I could also tell you everybody’s allergies. I could tell you what every single person on this crew is allergic to.”
Eisert is the producer for “Tick,” one of this year’s LSU Geaux Films. She takes the director’s vision and makes it happen through the resources of people, places and money. Her job is to organize crew, auditions, locations and budget; all the behind-the-scenes paperwork that makes a set run.
While she will do everything to have this vision to come to life, she ultimately does not care what the specifics are. The decision comes down to whatever makes the birthday boy happy.
“If a film is a child’s birthday party, the director is the child whose birthday it is, and they get to decide, ‘I want blue balloons or red balloons or whatever,’” explained Eisert. “But the producer is that child’s mom, and so I am purchasing the balloons. But ultimately, I do not care what they are.”
This birthday boy is fellow film and television senior Hill VanDuzee. He is both the writer and director of the short film, which he has been working on since June of 2025.
The story follows a troubled night guard, Kane, whose shift at a mysterious antique shop goes awry when he is forced to confront his regrettable past. This idea came to VanDuzee when he visited an antique shop in Opelousas; however, he also says inspiration came from recent horror hits such as “Sinners,” “Weapons” and the “Scream” films.
“All these movies have come out and sort of revitalized the horror genre,” VanDuzee said. “All of those films heavily utilize practical effects, and I really wanted to contribute to that and tell my piece of a story of something horror.”
Through this commitment to practical effects, the film produced a milestone for the program. “Tick” marks the very first set built by the students for an LSU Geaux Film, according to both Eisert and VanDuzee.
With the help of recent LSU graduate Abbie Lestrade, the “Tick” crew put together a storage room with flats from the Reilly Theatre on campus. Eisert pegged this as a necessity for the shoot to let VanDuzee’s vision shine.
“We had to do things to the walls, like put a hole in the wall; we had to break a mirror against the wall, and it was just one of those things where there’s way too much liability with actually doing that in a real location,” Eisert said. ”So we did it in something that it wouldn’t really matter too much if anything happened. We had full, complete creative control over the space.”
Another example of practical innovation was in an effort to create a bokeh effect for a shot. The bokeh effect is when an aesthetic soft blur is produced for the out-of-focus parts of a frame. This is typically done through a setting in a specific lens, which Eisert unfortunately could not factor into the budget.
“We’re not necessarily in the business of affording $1,000 lenses just yet,” Eisnert joked.
Director of photography Nina Embaugh got creative and found a way to achieve the same effect by rubbing vaseline in a circle on an ND, or neutral density, filter.
These challenges that breed innovation and creative problem solving are what these programs are all about. VanDuzee believes everything came together to serve his vision in spades. If given the opportunity to do it over again, he would do it the exact same way.
“I wouldn’t really change a thing, to be honest, because I realized that if I didn’t learn that, I wouldn’t have learned anything,” VanDuzee said.
Both creatives credit the LSU film program with helping them get where they are today, and the encouragement of professors and peers to go head first into roles and take advantage of state-of-the-art equipment was invaluable.
In a setting such as college, mistakes are easier to make with less on the line. While Eisert agrees with the idea one does not need to go to film school to be a filmmaker, it also provides a safety net to explore. The filmmakers at LSU are always looking for more hands, and Eisert believes anyone can join in.
“Whether you are an engineer and you have interest in the lights; [if] you’re a medical student and you want to come and be set med; if you like cooking and you want to cater, it’s like its own little miniature city that needs people to run,” said Eisert. “So the more people that want to come and hang out with us, that’s what we want. We just need more people to come.”
To keep up to date on the status of “Tick,” follow VanDuzee and Eisert on Instagram.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source lsureveille.com ’
