When first meeting Kim Peeler, one would not assume her to be a filmmaker.

Sure, she looks artsy, with long hair and a cool fringed sweater, but she doesn’t have that harried look directors have.

Peeler, communications senior, is the creator of “Subtext,” a movie comprised of five stories, all using the same dialogue. “Subtext” was recently screened at Loyola.

Peeler came to Loyola as a drama/communications major, but switched to the communications broadcast production sequence after the first year.

“I can still act in my friends’ works, but I wanted to have the creative control of directing and producing,” she said.

The first of Peeler’s two longer, more personal works, a documentary on segregation and racial tension in New Orleans, recently was in the New York Independent Film and Video Festival.

“Subtext” was born as an idea this past December. Peeler spent two months writing the script before she began filming.

She wanted to have a movie with different scenes using the same dialogue.

To create her dialogue, Peeler typed up and cut out lines, then rearranged until she found the best combination, she said.

Peeler had planned to use “Subtext” as a project for communications class, but ran into some complications.

She had bought a digital camera but found that she was required to use the department’s equipment if the film was to count as a communications project.

The communications department uses Beta film, which is mostly used for news broadcasts.

Peeler turned to associate professor of English Paulette Richards. Richards, a filmmaker herself, allowed Peeler to use the film as her Creative Writing Workshop project.

Since this was Peeler’s project, “I was completely detailed with everything,” she said. “I got all these special locations.”

Peeler said that she loved doing film in New Orleans, because the people are more down to earth and willing to help.

“When I ask someone to let me shoot at their place, they get excited about it, instead of asking me for money,” she said.

Filming took four months and involved twenty shoots, Peeler said.

Her ideas for scenes came out of places she liked.

She said her favorite scene takes place at a gas station.

Another scene, in which single guys are hitting on and getting rejected by girls, was inspired by the personalities of Peeler’s friends, the actors.

“But they don’t really get rejected that much,” Peeler added.

“Wake,” a scene that takes place in a house, was supposed to be filmed in Houston with Peeler’s family.

Peeler said she was glad that she filmed it in New Orleans with friends instead.

“That day-it was only one day of filming -was hell!” Peeler said. “It’s hard to choreograph that large a group of people.”

Peeler said that in working on “Subtext” she has found it is easier to not have to worry about dialogue.

The actors are focused on the action and not how they look.

Peeler mimicked shot composition for each scene. For example, there was an outdoor establishing shot before the appearance of Scrabble letters spelling out the title of the scene.

In each scene, the establishing shot had one person in it that was later stepped over at the end of the scene.

“I really had motifs, not themes,” Peeler said.

Peeler said that she focused on primacy of action and the visual over dialogue.

She said that she feels one does not get the meaning of a film through the words alone.

With “Subtext,” she said she tried to create something that had never been done before.

“I feel that the accomplishment was all in the production. I don’t feel that [the] scope of it is what you would think of as the scope of a student film.”

Peeler said her budget was $800. She said that she now has something to show investors.

“I can say, ‘look what I can do with $800.00,” she said. “With $50,000 I can make it 50 times better.”

Peeler said her next project will be a feature-length political satire, a more typical film style than “Subtext.”

She and her friends will be working together to start their own production company, called “Fourth Floor Productions.”

Peeler will produce, Otto Mertins, A’03, will direct and Charles Hamric, A’02, will write the script.

They plan on getting fundraisers and attracting investors.

“Most people don’t realize how hard it is to make a movie,” Peeler said. “They think it’s just following someone around with a camera for a while, but it’s not like that.”

Peeler plans to send “Subtext” to film festivals and is looking into getting it onto the Showtime and Sundance channels.

You can buy “Subtext” by contacting Kim Peeler at [email protected].

You can also contact Peeler if you are interested in working (probably paid) on the feature-length film this summer.

´Subtext,´ a movie comprised of different stories with the same dialogue, is Kim Peeler´s second personal film. The movie has thirty-four characters, five stories, and ´not much dialogue.´ (PHOTO COURTESY OF KIM PEELER)