There’s no doubt that finals week is a stressful time. While most students were holed up in the library cramming for exams, one ambitious group of University of Wisconsin students was dealing with another set of stresses. UW-Hollywood Badgers spent their finals week filming a movie that was the culminating project after a semester of planning.

“Anyone can upload a video to YouTube. You can shoot a movie on your iPhone. We didn’t want to just come up with a storyline and shoot it. We wanted to go through each step of making a feature film,” said Matt McCoy, one of the film’s producers.

Last fall semester, the student group oversaw the production of a 30-minute film from the screenwriting process, to location scouting, character casting, shooting and editing. Now, they will be screening their first film, “The Plunge,” Saturday in Vilas Hall.

UW-Hollywood Badgers is the student chapter of Hollywood Badgers, an alumni group that helps alumni in Los Angeles and New York network with the goal of getting a job in the entertainment industry. The student chapter holds weekly meetings that include workshops about writing resumes and cover letters as well as social events like Oscar parties.

President of UW-Hollywood Badgers and Executive Producer for “The Plunge” Chase Ellman said the group encourages students to start making their dreams a reality sooner rather than later. “People should just do what they want to do in life. I don’t know how much more simple I can put it than that,” he said.

“The Plunge” stars Colten Zacharias as Josh, Nicholas Van Brunt as Adam, and Abigail Taubner as Isabel. Josh and Adam are estranged brothers. When Adam shows up at Josh’s door, Josh struggles to incorporate his brother back into his life and is not sure how to tell his girlfriend Isabel about his brother.

“If I can be cliché, it’s an interweaving of two emotional journeys,” Brendan Wolf, another producer, said somewhat jokingly.

Ellman has had several internships in L.A. that prepared him to produce this film. Despite his experience, he said “The Plunge,” which was produced on a $500 budget, will have a distinct student-produced flair. “I wouldn’t say [the film] mimic[s] Hollywood aspect. We’re students. We could decide to smile and have fun or be serious. Hollywood sets are not really fun and we were trying to blend both aesthetics,” he said.

Whereas finding a location to shoot in L.A. is cutthroat and costly, the Madison community was very receptive to their production.

“Here it’s a novelty, almost. People would look at us and we were like, ‘Don’t look at the screen! We’re making a movie here!’” Ellman said.

The movie was shot entirely in Madison at locations that students will recognize, including the Kollege Klub, MacTaggart’s Market, State Street Brats, Fair Trade Coffee and the Memorial Union docks.

Like in Hollywood, the film was a collaborative project, an approach Ellman emphasized. The screenplay, written by Máire Jacobs, was chosen from six written by various members of UW-Hollywood Badgers.

Ellman, McCoy, Wolf and Jason Schwartz produced the film. It was directed by W.E. Halamka and shot by Logan Cascia, who also made “Teach Me How to Bucky.” Ben Simons and Mike Denruiter edited the final product.

Wolf said he was particularly impressed with other students’ patience and willingness to give up their free time, especially during finals. He said it typically takes several hours to shoot what appears as only a minute or two onscreen.

As for the future, UW-Hollywood Badgers is working on two more films, which they hope to finish by the end of the semester.

“The Plunge” screens Saturday at 3 p.m. at Cinematheque in 4070 Vilas Hall.