Boston University’s gender-inclusive film fraternity Delta Kappa Alpha hosted a screening Friday night for the premiere of “Premeditated,” their Spring 2022 short film that follows the comedic process of two employees plotting to kill their boss.
Writer and director Elle Misko, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said it felt “crazy” to be at the premiere of her own short film, and that the screening made it feel “very real.”
“If you told me this was going to happen a couple years ago, I would’ve laughed at you,” Misko said. “It’s not just a video I made on my iPhone. I had a cast and crew of dozens of people and real, legit film equipment.”
She is not a film and television major or minor, Misko said, and she had never written or directed before “Premeditated.” The idea, she said, was written just “for fun” to use as a sketch for her friends during last summer.
When her idea was chosen to be produced as the spring short film for Delta Kappa Alpha, Misko said she felt like she was “just diving right into the deep end.”
“I didn’t necessarily know how to communicate with my actors yet, and I had to problem solve a lot on the go,” she said, “but looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Alex Shores, a junior in Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and the College of Communications, said as one of the producers of “Premeditated,” he enjoyed seeing the cast and crew’s collaboration throughout the process.
“It was cool to see everything come together, [with] everyone there and just working on this, kind of making magic happen,” Shores said.
Actor Reid Chave, a junior in CAS, said he had not acted before his starring role in “Premeditated.” The scariest part, Chave said, was feeling unable to gauge his own performance. Chave played Gus — a character who Misko described as a nerdy “wormboy character.”
“You never know from your own perspective whether your acting is actually any good or if people are just telling you that,” Chave said. “It was just very frightening for me because I had no idea if I was weighing the whole team down.”
Misko said Chave “killed it” the first time he read the lines.
“It made me so happy to see my own really good friend just absolutely destroy his acting performance,” she said. “It was so awesome.”
Actor Keevan Regan, a sophomore in COM, said he had difficulty navigating his role at first. Regan, a member of Delta Kappa Alpha, played Mal, an employee teaming up with Chave’s character Gus to kill their boss.
“Trying to figure out what [Misko] had in mind for the role… it was definitely a bit more challenging than I first anticipated,” Regan said.
Regan said he has fond memories of the last day of shooting the short film because of how tight knit the group became.
Actor Yelisey Kazakevich, a sophomore in COM, said Misko is “one of the best directors” that he has ever worked with. Kazakevich, a member of Delta Kappa Alpha, played Bosley, Gus and Mal’s boss at the company.
“Elle, despite not having a background in film, has a very unique, innate, instinctual almost sense of how to direct a scene and how to work with actors and how to make a vision and a story come to life,” Kazakevich said.
Kazakevich said he cherished the “eclectic, dynamic environment” on the set of “Premeditated.”
“What I love about these DeKa productions is that everyone is there for one reason only, because they love cinema,” Kazakevich said. “They love film, and they love each other.”
