Burnt Orange Productions, in collaboration with the UT Film Institute, might be on its way to the big screen with its first film, "The Quiet."
The Austin-based production of the film, formerly known as "Dot," finished filming in October.
The film, written by Micah Schraft and Abdi Nazemian, came to Burnt Orange through the Sundance Labs, a prestigious program that helps selected screenwriters "workshop" their scripts, said Burnt Orange Productions President and CEO Carolyn Pfeiffer. "The Quiet," directed by Jamie Babbit, is about a deaf orphan who is sent to live with her godparents, resulting in her discovery of disturbing secrets about the family.
"It's a teen drama with thriller elements," Pfeiffer said.
Alicyn Peck, Pfeiffer's executive assistant, said changing the film's name from "Dot" to "The Quiet" was a creative decision made by the writers, director and Pfeiffer.
After two months on set in Austin, the film has now moved to Los Angeles for post-production, taking UT student apprentices with it. Pfeiffer said they hope to have the film ready by the end of April.
But finishing the film's sound effects, color correction and music in post-production, she said, is just the beginning of a crucial part of the film industry: getting the film distributed.
"We're still laying out the plan of how we're going to sell the picture," she said. "The most likely scenario is we'll go to a festival or two sometime between now and the fall, and the buyers come to those festivals."
Pfeiffer said the film will not be ready for Austin's signature film festival, South by Southwest, but may be ready for the Cannes film festival in France. She said films must be submitted for invitation to be included in the festival.
"We have a lot of confidence in the picture," she said. "Hopefully, we'll be invited if submitted."
"The Quiet" is an in-house film, meaning it had a $1 million budget and involved UT faculty and students, said Pfeiffer.
Public affairs representative for the UT Film Institute Erin Geisler said Burnt Orange Productions and the institute worked together on the film.
"It's a symbiotic relationship," she said. "They were both established at the same time to support each other and collaborate with each other."
Geisler said the UT Film Institute was created by the University to give graduate film students hands-on experience in one specialized area of the industry.
"The traditional film model really focuses on the auteur concept, where the filmmaker is everything," Geisler said. She said this concept isn't followed in the feature film industry, which is highly specialized, so the institute was created to better train graduate students for working on feature films.
Peck said the crew included about 20 undergraduate students who served as unpaid interns and several graduate students who worked as apprentices under Hollywood experts. Radio-television-film senior Allison Abadie, who worked as an intern in the art department during production of "The Quiet", said the film was a wonderful opportunity for students.
"I am incredibly proud that UT has this program for its students to interact with people who are from the industry, because that's really the only way we can get the experience that we need," Abadie said.
The cast includes Elisha Cuthbert of "The Girl Next Door," Edie Falco of "The Sopranos," and Shawn Ashmore of "X-Men" and "X2."
"The actors were great, and the community was really accommodating," said Pfeiffer. "We were blessed to have a good shoot and a happy shoot."
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