Newtown Brothers Look Locally For Their Senior Thesis

By Eliza Hallabeck

While home during a short break from school for the weekend of Easter, twin brothers Douglas and Jason Graves were finishing each other’s sentences while describing a short film they are close to completing for their senior thesis at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, Long Island.

Douglas, who goes by Doug, said, he and Jason always knew they would be working on their thesis together. Their original idea, Doug said, “Was way too big.”

“With stuff we couldn’t pull off,” Jason added.

So they thought about what they could do, what had been done at the school before, and sat down with a friend of theirs who is a writer.

Between March and April last year, Jason and Doug were typing drafts of their script, and finally completed it by the summer. The film, A House Divided, focuses on two brothers during the Civil War who find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. The Graves brothers said they made a lot of effort during last summer.

“It’s basically a microcosm of the mood of the nation [during the Civil War],” said Jason. “A country divided literally translated to a house divided and cannot stand.”

May 1 is the deadline to turn in their project for the school, but after that the brothers said they hope to enter their film into film festivals.

“Our family has helped us a lot with this movie,” said Jason. While their mother opened their home in town for people helping on the project, their father got his reenactment friends to be filmed in the movie.

Jason and Doug, both film majors at the college, said they are interested in writing, directing, and producing movies. Both brothers will be getting credit for their senior thesis for the project, along with their cinematographer Joe Janasiewicz.

“I think we have been really lucky to have the crew and cast that we have,” said Jason.

Shooting for the film began in Long Island in November, went to Woodbury on March 7, and then took place near their home in town on March 8.

“And that is where we shot the whole confrontation between the two brothers,” said Doug.

The estimated running time for their project is ten minutes, which is what film festivals look for, Jason said.

So far the brothers said their film has been getting praise around their school.

Doug said to film the production they had to bring people to the area who had never been to an area like Newtown before. He said one of his friends asked him where all the streetlights were.

Ideas for a future feature film are already jumping between the brothers, but for now, Jason said they are concentrating on trying to find work with a film festival this summer and getting A House Divided into a festival.

“Our movie is shot all outdoors,” said Doug, who added they were lucky when it came to weather. He said when they shot in March it had been snowing the week before, but by the time they were shooting the film there was little snow.

Doug and Jason both felt like their time in school had gone quickly. Jason said on the first day of shooting the film, he remembered when he was in his freshman year at Five Towns College and helping older students with their projects.

“Now it is our turn to do that,” said Doug, who added that through the process he has learned that the best way to learn how to be a director is to be directive.