The Wayne State College film department has a big day on Feb. 5, as they’re both premiering a feature-length film at the Majestic Theater and opening a new film studio in the humanities building on campus.
WSC’s new film studio is located on the third floor of the humanities building in room 308. The studio comes equipped with features such as green screen technology, sound insulation, a variable truss for lighting, stop motion animation technology and an equipment room. There will be a ribbon cutting event for the new studio on Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 3:30 p.m. Mike White, a film professor at WSC, said the studio was extremely important to the film department, and he was excited for future student productions to be able to use it.
“The new studio changes everything for us,” White said. “We feel like we’re the premiere film program in this part of the country, and we want to keep it that way.”
As well as the studio, the Majestic Theatre will be premiering the student film “Lost Soul” on Feb. 5 starting at 3.30 p.m. “Lost Soul” is a feature-length drama dealing with themes of grief and loss. It was written, directed and produced by Nathan Blizzard, who graduated from WSC in spring 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in digital film production and theory. Blizzard said he hopes viewers of “Lost Soul” could take away the message that there are healthy ways to deal with grief, as is explored in the film.
Most of the film’s production happened from spring 2023 to spring 2024. “Lost Soul” is the first feature film ever made by a student at WSC.
“It’s a two-hour film, and that’s very, very unusual for a student to make,” White said. “It might be the first feature ever made by a student in Nebraska.”
Blizzard said even though he already graduated, he sometimes didn’t feel like he’d even left Wayne.
“I got to work with people who were still at Wayne.” Blizzard said. “It’s my favorite part, seeing that other people are dedicated to it.”
The premiere starts with a press event at 6:30 p.m., followed by a screening of the film at 7 p.m. Afterwards, there will be a Q&A. Blizzard said he was excited to see his work pay off, and he was also grateful to everyone else who made the film possible.
“I’m thankful for the amazing people that worked on it. It’s because of them that this film was made,” Blizzard said. “I hope that people are able to enjoy the hard work they put into it.”