By Danny Cox

(UWire)--While most students are busy reserving hotel rooms and making travel plans to spring break hot-spots, Ohio University student Conor Hogan, a junior Video Production major, is reserving set locations and scheduling actors.

Hogan is one of more than 70 OhioUniversity students working on Trailerpark, the first feature-length film to be produced by students as part of undergraduate course work.

As Coordinating Producer, Hogan is responsible for overseeing the entire production, supervising each department to make sure the project continues to progress on schedule.

The movie can be found on the web at trailerparkmovie.com, as well as on social networking sites Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

In an effort to balance the limited shooting the crew can complete on weekends, the students decided to substitute taking shots on a beach to framing shots on set, setting aside the entire week to do block-shooting each day.

Block-shooting is the practice of filming all day, every day for a week at a time; the way that professionals make movies when they don't have to balance production with a full university schedule.

"Block shooting is the most efficient way to cover heavy scheduling," said Andy Poland, a junior Video Production major and a Director of Photography on Trailerpark. "The crew and cast can get into a rhythm, especially on a project like this with a lot of enthusiasm going into it."

It's precisely that rhythm that the production team hopes to find during the long days of shooting.

"You have your cast down there for an extended period of time, and they're getting to stay in character longer," said junior Video Production major Patrick Muhlberger, who is co-Directing the film. "There's a lot of intimacy between us and the cast, there's a lot more freedom to ask questions and work with us."

Despite staying in Southeastern Ohio for the duration of spring break, most students understand the importance of the block-shooting schedule.

"We haven't heard anyone complain," Hogan said. "Spending all day shooting and getting worn out together is a great bonding experience for the crew. Plus we can get a lot of pages done."

For some, there couldn't be a better alternative.

"Usually I kind of go home and none of my friends have the same break," Muhlberger said. "I can be with all my friends here, and after 9 days we'll have great footage to show."

The movie follows the residents of a rural-Ohio trailer park over the course of one year. Adapted from the novel by best-selling author Russell Banks, Trailerpark will be screened at the end of the school year on OhioUniversity's campus, as well as at the Lake Placid Film Forum in New York.

Trailerpark can be found on the web at http://www.trailerparkmovie.com/, as well as on social networking sites Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.