‘Soliloquy’ thrills as casting call commentary
The Trojan Filmmakers Club’s film, the result of student work, debuts soon.
By REO
Sitting in the middle of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity bathroom, at least 20 people huddled inside, holding microphones, lights and camera equipment. In the center sat Celeste Liu and her sister, Simone. Simone wouldn’t stop teasing Celeste, because Celeste forgot her line, even though she wrote the script.
Starring in a self-written film is no out-of-the-ordinary event for a film student at USC. Students attempt to run their own productions on tiny budgets all the time. This film, however, was more regimented than other student productions.
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The film in question, “Soliloquy,” is one of two being produced by Trojan Filmmakers Club this school year and has been an undertaking months in the making. Celeste wrote the script in the fall, and now, nearly seven months later, she and Simone are starring in the two lead roles in the film. The twins are both seniors majoring in business administration.
“I did write [the film] thinking about the experiences that my twin Simone and I have had acting for the past couple of years,” Celeste said. “It’s very weird sometimes how one of us gets a callback for the same role versus the other one.”
The film follows an actress at a casting call who spirals after running into an identical candidate for the job and an uncomfortable audition. Though it has its share of dark humor, the film is most closely a psychological thriller. It drew in five producers at TFC, including Brooke Maille, a sophomore majoring in neuroscience.
“We all loved the script from the beginning,” Maille said.
She noted that all of the producers who originally were on the development team for “Soliloquy” stayed with the film when it began production.
“[The drafting process] was more so just amplifying what we all love to make the story come out the best it could ever. So, it was a very easy development process,” Maille said.
One month and four drafts later, the production began looking for cast and crew members inside and outside of TFC. The production found its director in Tiana Le — a senior majoring in film and television production — and cast actors from South Central to Westwood.
“Soliloquy” is one of two films produced by Trojan Filmmakers Club this school year, after writer Celeste Liu wrote the film this fall. (Alexandra Pillsbury / TFC)
Although Celeste wrote the script, she originally didn’t know if she and Simone would be chosen to act side-by-side in it. While the film called for two identical twins, TFC first looked elsewhere to find their leads. Though involved in casting, Celeste drew some ire from the process, seeing the irony in the subject matter.
“I kind of hated [the casting process], because that’s what the story is about: how much it sucks,” Celeste said.
The club filled all of its roles apart from the leading two, which were eventually given to Celeste and Simone.
TFC, a club that had been operating at USC for many years under the name Film & Television Writers of USC, produces three student films per year. Each fall, it takes applications, assigns producers and hires all of the cast and crew for two to three of these films. The club takes students from all majors and interests and gives them a shot at film production.
Meanwhile, others involved in the production had a fair bit of experience to draw from. Most of the producers worked on past TFC productions, and Le previously starred in numerous acclaimed television series.
“The main mission of TFC is to be a learning environment for anyone and everyone,” Maille said. “We want our sets to be as collaborative and as fun as possible so that people not only get a taste of what it’s like to be on set but want to stay and want to do more.”
On top of serving as a learning environment, the film strengthened connections between students interested in film. Maille looked at the film as an opportunity to bring together many students, while Simone saw it as an opportunity to bolster preexisting bonds — specifically, the bond with her twin.
“[This film is] the first one that we’ve done this much work on together,” Simone said. “We’ve done a few short films together where we get to act together, which has been really fun, but this was the first time … She’s also the writer.”
The film finished its third and final day of shooting March 5 and went directly into post-production, hiring editors so the film would be ready to screen by the end of the semester. After filming wrapped, Simone felt all her previous expectations of working in film had been surpassed.
“It’s so cheesy, but if you had told us a year ago that we were doing this, I would’ve been like, ‘No way,’” Simone said.
Celeste conceded, admitting she didn’t have time to process all that the production went through.
“The timeline went so fast since it got picked,” Celeste said. “I still haven’t really had enough time to be like, ‘Is this actually happening?’”
