Corey Parsons stands at two heads taller than me when I meet him at his office in Union South. His impressive height isn’t what makes him interesting though — it’s his extracurricular involvement.
The 20-year-old undergraduate is majoring in Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and will be graduating early with a degree in Radio, TV, and Film. Upon graduating in May, Parsons said he will be moving to Los Angeles where he will work as a production assistant.
Parsons has been involved with a number of different film-related organizations on campus like Hollywood Badgers and Badge TV, but his primary involvement has been with WUD Film, a student-run committee under the Wisconsin Union Directorate. He is currently the director of WUD Film.
WUD is made up of Hoofers — an outdoor recreational program — and eight other special interest committees such as Art, Publications, Alternative Spring Breaks, Global Connections, Music, Distinguished Lecture Series, Society and Politics, and Performing Arts. According to its website, students “plan, program and promote hundreds of recreational, art, community service and cultural events on campus” every year.
The following is an edited and condensed version of his interview.
What does WUD Film mean to you?
It’s a place to gain leadership experience and film industry knowledge you wouldn’t be able to get elsewhere. It’s a place where you can grow as an individual, and as a student. It’s a place for people to bond after classes and have a good time. We’re all very close, and we do exciting things together outside of WUD Film as well.
What do you do in WUD Film? Is it difficult to direct?
It’s quite a bit of work. There are six associations that work under me and about 40 people come every week to talk about campus events and to vote on films. We have subcommittee meetings where brainstorming and voting takes place and then another committee that has to approve that list. Finally, we contact distributors who work with second-run venues like us. Second-run basically means we screen films after all the big theaters, but before they go on DVD. After that, we do all the promotional work to get people to come. On average, we pay $700 per film to get the rights to screen it, but if the films are already out on DVD, they’re $350. We also have screenings called Sneaks where distributors pay us $500 to screen and advertise their films.
What do you think WUD Film means to the university, the students and the public?
It started in 1940, so it’s been going for 72 years now. It has a very long tradition that it’s upholding, and it constantly improves. Up until six to seven years ago we still charged $2.50 to $3.50 for admission, but now that we’ve completely converted over to free, it’s allowed for our diversity of films to broaden a lot more. We can program what we want to and try to get people to come. So many people grew up watching a lot of films; it’s a part of pop culture, so I would hope it’s important to those not involved with the campus. I think that by offering all these free movie screenings here, it’s a big thing for people. I think a lot of people rely on it since there aren’t many theaters downtown.
What would you be doing if you weren’t involved with WUD Film?
Generally, I’m involved with very film-related groups. But, if film didn’t exist, I would find something I’m passionate about that I could really apply myself toward. I think whatever it is, I just want to be engulfed in it, and just live and breathe whatever subject it is. I think it’s really important to be closely connected with your major and invested in it. I think your leisure activities should help benefit that as well.
Do you have any personal projects that you’re working on?
Over the summer, with one of my friends, I shot a short film here in Madison. It’s about 10 to 15 minutes long, but I haven’t had time to crop and edit it yet. It’s too late to submit it to the Wisconsin Film Festival this year, but I might submit it to next year’s festival. The number one thing I’m working on is in WUD Film. Every spring semester we have a MiniIndie Film Festival that basically showcases a bunch of independent films that students wouldn’t have the opportunity to see anywhere else. There’s going to be a segment for student films as well, and I’m excited for that. We took a trip to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, an annual independent cinema festival, in January for potential films to play at MiniIndie. It was a special opportunity to see these gems that were really great, but maybe aren’t able to draw a huge audience. The whole festival was just really amazing.
What is advice you would share with your peers?
Getting involved with student extracurricular activities is so important. I know I probably sound like an old person saying this, but there are so many opportunities in college. A lot of people focus on getting perfect grades or doing all their assignments really well, but there are a lot of things that can help. Even if you’re just focused on your major, there are so many things that can benefit your major and add stuff to your resume that can prepare you for your career. Honestly, your classes will only take you so far in preparing you for after graduation. I think that joining groups, wherever they are, is really beneficial as well.
WUD Film has six to 10 movie screenings every week. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are collaborated screenings with other organizations on campus. Thursdays are alternative film screenings, and Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are reserved for big Hollywood film screenings.
To learn more about WUD and how to get involved, visithttp://www.union.wisc.edu/wud.
