Stewardship Report - Eastern University

EASTERN UNIVERSITY ENJOYS ITS
FIRST CLOSE-UP
By Diana Hirtzel, Communications Office Production Coordinator
This past June, iBox Films used
Eastern University’s St. Davids
campus as the setting for a commercial
for the Hugo®, a rolling
walker. Although iBox had previously
scouted Eastern as a filming
location, this was the first time the
campus was chosen. In exchange
for using the property, iBox made a
generous donation to the Student
Aid Fund, which provides money
for student scholarships.
For two full days, hallmarks of
a Hollywood film set—cameras,
actors and actresses (from both
Philadelphia and New York City),
microphones, crew members,
wardrobe—were evident at
Eastern. Filming began after prop
crews dressed up several popular
sites around campus to transform
them into new locales.
With the addition of grocery
store foods, the bookstore became
a newspaper shop. Fishing gear
and tackle made it appear as if a
grandfather and his grandson were
enjoying a day of fishing on the
dock in front of the Gatehouse.
Plastic flowers, folding chairs and
a group of students, consisting of
both professional actors and
Eastern students and staff members
working on campus for the
summer, donned caps and gowns
to create a mock graduation scene
outside McInnis Hall.
The students and the
Communications Office staff,
working as liaisons between the
The dock of the gatehouse is used as a fishing site to demonstrate
the convenience of the Hugo walker.
University and the filmmakers,
experienced how much fun (and
hard work) a shoot of this kind
involves. Kelly Van Der Aa ’02,
an extra in the graduation scene,
said, “It was very interesting to
see the camera crew’s process and
how many times they had to film
to get a simple shot.” For the
Communications staff, it was fun
but also challenging watching over
the various sites to tell students,
visitors and faculty what was going
on, while also stopping them from
walking into live filming.
Natural disruptions, like a
friendly deer, sporadic showers
and the summer heat also affected
the time of the shoot. Although the
production company plans every
detail of filming down to the
minute, both days went over
schedule. Even with the long days,
our students, staff and the film
crew persevered to get the job done.
The two-minute commercial
has been completed
and is airing on television
stations in the area. Keep an
eye out for it and see the
glory of Eastern University
on the small screen.
EU student Richard (Fig) Figueroa
waits his turn in the spotlight.
EASTERN.EDU FALL 2005 THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF EASTERN UNIVERSITY
EU student Karen Gelsizer (left)
and EU Alumni Coordinator
Kelly Van Der Aa serve as
extras in the graduation
scene of the Hugo commercial.
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