Morris is filming a short movie titled “Skitchin’” which references a 1994 Electronic Arts video game in which players on roller blades raced one another by grabbing onto cars to gain speed, and knocking other players off their cars. Using this idea as the catch, Morris has spent the past year planning the movie, and is beginning to hold auditions and shoot the film on a next-to-nothing budget.

“(A green screen) enables you to put images not in your frame naturally behind your subject who is acting in front of it. It can provide a lot of freedom, but it can also be distracting if used incorrectly,” said Robert Albers, senior video specialist in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media.

Morris said he has run into issues with the animated quality of the green screen backgrounds and computer animated objects, which will contrast with the live actors in the film.

“You watch a movie with special effects now from the ‘80s and you see the special effects are horrible, but you still like it,” Morris said, adding that the movie’s strength isn’t meant to be the special effects, but the dialogue.

Morris is planning to submit the movie next month in BET’s “Lens On Talent” contest. The winner will receive $100,000 to re-create their film, which then will air on BET.

Movie making was not always in the plan for Morris. He originally moved from his hometown of Greenville, S.C., to attend Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing. But after being put on academic probation, he was encouraged to turn an idea he had for a film into a reality.

“A friend of mine, she was like, ‘If you have ideas, why don’t you go ahead and do a movie?’ She really motivated me to want to do it,” Morris said, adding that next month’s deadline also has helped him move the project along.

Despite his day job, he manages to spend some time every day working on the film.

Morris got his start in filmmaking at Duncan Chapel Elementary in Greenville. His job consisted of putting in tapes when the director told him to go.

“My elementary school back home had a news program. They had a librarian, she collected all the old material from the news station she worked at and she totally got people together,” Morris said. “I didn’t know years later it would come back to
haunt me.”

And it has taken over his free time as well as his apartment. Stepping through the door, one can see the opposite wall is covered in a green screen, mirrors are placed in the closet and on the ceiling to allow multiple angled shots in the small space. Morris’ story board and rows of index cards run up the walls and onto the ceiling.

Another room contains a sound board and electric guitar, which he uses to create the soundtrack. Also set up is his computer outfitted with Home Designer 7.0 and Adobe Premiere, the latter of which he learned from a woman he sat next to while writing his thesis paper as an undergraduate.

“(The movie) is a daily thing,” he said. “I’m always thinking about it.”

Morris might not have a professional background in movies, he has done his research, reading books about the process of filmmaking and screen writing from directors such as Antonin Artaud, Robert Rodriguez and David Mammoth.

“(Rodriguez) totally demystified the whole process … you even listen to his director’s commentary on his other movies, he’s sitting there encouraging you the whole time,” Morris said. “To me, that’s almost like a gift.”

Joseph Barnes, a Lansing resident who already has shot a few scenes for Morris’ film, said the film goes beyond the mere action of the game “Skitchin.’”

“I think he does have a chance (at BET’s contest), being different. I like that it’s not something I’ve seen or heard before, so I think other people will appreciate
it too.”