The Student Producers Association is producing a TV show pilot compiled of films from the Black Warrior Review Film Festival to air on an Alabama public network in spring 2014.

“This is not a class with a professor. This is as real as it gets without being on network TV,” senior Alex Beatty, president of Student Producers Association, said.

Last spring, SPA, Crimson Cinema Products and Creative Campus formed the Black Warrior Film Festival Committee and put on their first film festival, featuring films from the telecommunication department and individual students. All genres of films were included, and awards were given to the best films.

“The Black Warrior Film Festival was created to showcase all of the wonderful student talent we have on campus, and from that idea, the TV show was born,” Leigh Rusevlyan, vice president of SPA, said.

With the support of Rachel Raimist, assistant professor in the department of telecommunication and film, SPA paired with the Black Warrior Film Festival to merge ideas for the TV show. In order to run on a show on TV stations such as WVUA, a pilot for the show must be approved. If the pilot for the show goes through, it will air sometime in March.

They plan for this TV show to be a director’s cut of the Black Warrior Film Festival. Beatty said the tentative plan is to air three films per show with a Q&A session in between and a special spot for people who won. The show will run 30 minutes, and if students get the green light after submitting the pilot, they will make a whole season featuring at least six episodes.

“I am very hopeful that the show’s success will inspire a whole new crop of students who will want to get involved in the making of this show,” Raimist said.

The goal is to have the films locked down and the pilot done for submitting by the end of October.

“My personal goal is to leave the University with something they have tried to do for so long,” Beatty said. “I want to continue past my graduation year to be able to get students involved in actually making an only student run TV show.”

By airing a TV show, Beatty said students will learn what actually goes into making a long-term series and what the process is like. Students will also learn how to handle social media and marketing for advertising the show.

“My hope for the show is that viewers on campus, in Tuscaloosa and those well beyond Alabama will see our students have vision, technical skills and talent as filmmakers and are on-par with other top film schools in the nation,” Raimist said.

Anyone interested in particpating can contact Alex Beatty at [email protected].