Film crew sets base on campus

Kevin Reynolds kreynolds.roundupnews@gmail.com

Pierce College was home to a movie shooting last week when a crew set up trailers in Parking Lot 5, near Shepard Stadium.

The parking lot was not the actual background for the filming. Scenes were instead shot at a nearby house.

The film crew was only using the parking lot as a home base for the cast, crew and trailers.

“We are taking all of your parking,” Frank McCord, the film’s production assistant, said.

“The students here really hate us.”

The group only took up space in the parking lot on Thursday.

The film they are making is a comedy. It will be a parody take on all the paranormal movies that have recently been released, according to John Starr, background actor. Starr, face painted and body clothed in a colorful clown attire, works for Central Casting and has so for many years.

“I was sitting behind John Travolta in ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’,” Starr said. “I’ve been around for a long time.”

The cast and crew did not wish to give away parts of the plot, but were willing to say that the films working title is ‘Tick Tock.’ ‘Tick Tock’ wasn’t the only media production shot on campus. Last week, cast and crew for ‘Bones’ also used the campus for a scene in an upcoming episode. They filmed Tuesday in the abandoned Horticulture Center.

The T-shirts each shared different stories, yet were all connected to sexual assault.

“I was saddened to read some of [the T-shirts], but I believe that the students who shared their stories do it, in a way, to help others, and that is something that not many are capable to do,” Pierce student Randy Zamora said.

Students participating in or viewing the exhibit of T-shirts were given a small blue whistle that they could attach to their keys, giving them a tool to call attention if they ever find themselves in a situation that they are not sure how to handle.

Denim Day is a rape prevention education campaign across the United States in which community members, elected officials, businesses and students make a social statement with by wearing jeans as a visible means of protest against misconceptions that surround sexual assault.

“People assume that it is what the person is wearing that causes them to become victims,” Michelle Borsco, sociology major, said.

Denim Day started in Italy of the 1990s when an 18-year-old girl was raped by her driving instructor on her first driving lesson. After pressing charges for the rape, the case was judged at the Italian Supreme Court, and the driving instructor was found innocent because the judge said that since the girl was wearing tight jeans, she would have had to help the instructor remove them from her. This, to the judge, meant the sexual interaction was consensual, not a rape.

Within a matter of hour, the community began to protest by wearing jeans to work.

Interns to the Health Center from California State University of Northridge, as well as Pierce College, united with Campus Violence Response Team (CVRT) - lead by Holly Hogan, the Pierce Bookstore’s textbook buyer, - to bring awareness to sexual assault.

“[We want to let students who have been victims of violence or know someone who has know that] ‘they are not alone,’” April E. Henry, political science major, said.

The team began setting up at 8:30 a.m., and stayed available to answer students’ questions until 3:30 p.m., handing out pamphlets from the Student Health Center and CVRT.

Students also received handouts from ‘The Way of No Way,’ a survival seminar that provides selfdefense dedicated to women, and a supporting survivors information sheet for students to know how to help those they know that have been victims. The Health Center provides help and resources to students every April on Denim Day, and October for Domestic Awareness Month, Hagan said.

Students who would like to receive help or support with any situation involving sexual assault can make an appointment with the Health Center by calling (818) 7104270 or visiting the office located in the second floor at Student Services Building.

According to statistics made by The Way Of No Way:

1. One in four women in the U.S. will be raped during their college years.

2. Somewhere in America, a woman is sexually assaulted every two minutes.

3. 17.6% of women in the U.S. have survived a completed or attempted rape.