When the time came to start filming, Gregory put out a crew call and was surprised that so many people were interested in being a part of the project. Ultimately, 40 UCF students offered their time and assistance to take the story from a script to filming a full production in Eatonville, a historic black community, within a week./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201cI was really humbled and honored by the amount of people that came out,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201d Gregory says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201cA lot of people said we couldn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019t film a pilot in seven days, but we got it done./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201cIt/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019s a show based on cultural identity and what is at risk of being lost./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201d /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2013 Jason Gregory, UCF student/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n
The first screening for the pilot will air during the 30th annual Zora! Festival on Jan. 28 at the Eatonville Town Hall (307 East Kennedy Blvd.) Three showings will be 11 a.m. to noon; 12:45 to 1:45 p.m.; and 2:15 to 3:15 p.m./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n
This year/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019s festival is the 30thanniversary of the multi-day, multi-disciplinary event held to celebrate the life and work of author and former Eatonville resident Zora Neale Hurston. It will be held Jan. 26 to Feb. 3 and include public talks, museum exhibitions, theatrical productions and more./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nHere, Gregory shares more about Waking Up White:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nHow did you come up with the idea for Waking Up White? /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nI was watching TV one night and an African-American woman was on TV and she was responding to a news reporter/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019s question about an African-American who had just recently been shot and killed, and she said: /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201cThis wouldn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019t have happened if we were white./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201d And I just started thinking about that and realized there/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019s a lot of power in that word /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201cIf./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201d From there I just started creating the outline for this story./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nThe project is filmed entirely in Eatonville. Why did you choose this location? /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nThere are a couple great things about Eatonville. They are their own municipality. They have their own mayor, police force, they/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019re pretty much self-governed. And we were looking for a town to partner with. We loved the rich history and culture that they have. For the show, we actually created our own fictitious town called Wellsville, so we borrowed from some of Eatonville/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019s history. We named our town Wellsville because of Dr. [William Monroe] Wells, who was one of the first African-American doctors in Parramore (another historic African-American community.) And then we took the /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201cville/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201d from Eatonville./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nA team of 40 UCF students volunteered their time to help filmmaker Jason Gregory bring his script to life. (Photo courtesy of Jason Gregory)/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nWhat was the most challenging part of creating this project? /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nJust trying to make sure that everyone had the time because everyone worked for free, from the crew to the cast. We just had to really work around people/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019s schedules to make sure we could get it done, and we did. A lot of people said that we couldn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019t shoot a pilot in seven days and we got it done./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nWhat are some of your biggest influences? /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nOne of my biggest influences is Spike Lee/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019s Do the Right Thing. I eat, sleep and breathe that film, so there are a lot of influences from Spike Lee [in the show.] I joke around and tell people when I was a kid everyone would say, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201cI want to be like Mike,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201d because of the Gatorade commercials with Michael Jordan. I would say, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201cI want to be like Spike./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nI have also been majorly influenced by Reginald Hudlin, who directed Boomerangand Marshall, [as well as] Ava DuVernay and Martin Scorsese./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nGraduate student Jason Gregory (right) helps set up a shot during the filming of his TV pilot “Waking Up White.” (Photo courtesy of Jason Gregory)/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nDo you have any tips for other students who are attempting similar projects? /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nFind a mentor very quickly. A mentor that has been through what you/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019re attempting to go through so they can show you not only the successes, but also the failures. Become a student not only of film, but also project management and planning so you can plan accordingly. I planned so much that I even studied weather patterns over the past years on the dates we were filming just to be prepared. I made sure that if we needed to, we could shift from an exterior scene to an interior scene in case it started raining./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nWhat are you most proud of within this project? /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nMy proudest moment was working with a team dedicated to making quality projects, who are also motivated in advancing the Central Florida film market. We have great crews and actors here and I was honored to have them working on Waking Up White. It was a true community project. From the crew and actors to UCF and Eatonville. I/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019m extremely proud of what we accomplished./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nWhat does it mean to you that the public is going to finally see this? /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/nIt means a lot. I think everyone wants to leave some type of mark on society. We have a society that is built on the word /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201cif./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u201d If I were this, maybe I would have that. We really wanted to see if the grass is really greener on the other side and are there really opportunities out there that we are excluded from. And I/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019m hoping that this project will create an opportunity for dialogue so that we can get to a point to where we can identify more of what we have in common than just our differences./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n
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Jason Gregory says he hopes the project highlights our similarities, rather than our differences./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":93876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[3,6,27],"tags":[17023,1540,1690,5262],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-93872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-community","category-student-life","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-emerging-media","tag-film","tag-zora-neale-hurston"],"yoast_head":"/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n
UCF MFA Student to Screen /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2018Waking Up White/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/u2019 TV Pilot at ZORA! Fest/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/93872/n