Vincente Rodriguez enters his dark, deteriorating house and pours himself a glass of water after working in sunny Ecuador.
Rodriguez walks to his room to relax, but opens the door and sees a man with his girlfriend. The couple is locked together making love.
Rodriguez springs to action by knocking the man off his girlfriend and beginning to beat him. His knuckles crash into the man's face and ribs; blood spills from the victim's body.
The scene described takes place in director Roberto Estrella's independent film "Fighter," which is being edited on campus by Digital Corps students and staff.
BALL STATE CONNECTION
Senior telecommunications major Danilo Santos said he heard about Estrella from an Ecuadorian newspaper article a friend wrote.
Santos said he contacted Estrella through his production company and found out he was shooting in the United States.
Estrella said he and Santos grew up in the same Ecuadorian city, and, although they never met before, they had a good bond over the phone.
"Filmmakers and people in the film industry have that thing in common: we just love films," Estrella said.
Santos said Estrella was having audio problems while shooting, and he was about to travel to the West Coast but couldn't find the time.
The Ecuadorians kept in contact, and when Estrella needed to edit his movie, Santos said, he suggested coming to Ball State University to edit the film with the Digital Corps.
Digital Production Corps director Jonathan Huer said Santos had worked with Digital Corps members before and knew about their knowledge of media software.
THE DIGITAL CORPS
Estrella said he would love to send his movie to the Toronto or Sundance film festivals.
"One thing we have as an upper hand is that it is an Ecuadorian film," he said. "In film festivals, it is rare to see a movie from Ecuador."
But before he can do that, he, five Digital Corps students and Huer must edit the 400 hours of footage into a two-hour movie with a two-minute trailer, he said.
Estrella said he doesn't mind working with students and understands they have classes.
"I'm pretty young too," he said. "I find a lot of creativity [in students]."
Junior Digital Corps member Andrew Kmiec said he has spent about 30 hours helping with the film's editing, which started about three weeks ago.
Kmiec said it was interesting working with hours of footage because it requires hundreds of edits. He said he has had to think about the story and how a change could affect the movie as a whole.
Huer said the students could put the film on their resumes, and they had a chance to learn editing and storytelling.
"They have all these technical skills," he said. "And this is an opportunity for them to put them to use on a larger scale."
Huer said Estrella was an example that students can make a movie without going to New York or Los Angeles, but work anywhere.
"Ball State has tremendous resources so there is no reason why as a student you can't take advantage of those and work on [projects]," he said.
THE DIRECTOR
Estrella said he has loved movies since childhood.
"My mom would take us to the movies almost every Sunday, and that would be the highlight of my week," he said.
The theater would show double features, he said. One film would be a commercial American movie while the second would be a lesser-known film, he said.
"A lot of times I would just fall in love with the second," he said. "I could appreciate at a young age the different pacing."
Estrella, the 25-year-old director, said "Fighter" is about two characters who become involved in mixed martial arts fighting.
In the film, Andy, a sports agent, convinces Vincente, a fighter, to compete in martial arts matches after seeing him fight off three men at the same time, Estrella said.
He said he always had admiration for fighters and wanted to write a screenplay about them.
He began writing the screenplay in December 2005 and a year later he began shooting, he said.
The film had a crew of about 40 people, and they shot in four locations: Ecuador, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, Estrella said.
His favorite moment on set was watching the actors go through a scene without any problems, because he was able to just "watch the scene work," he said.
But the filming has brought some negatives, he said, such as an instance when three men with machine guns robbed him of $9,000 after a car accident in Ecuador.
Estrella said he raised about $500,000 for the film with hard work and saving, and he didn't borrow a lot from his family.
He borrowed money from the bank, he said, and was with his father and sister when the back of their car was hit.
The collision caused them to crash into a pole and that's when the three men walked out of the car behind them and took the money.
"What can you do," he said. "You have to keep calm."
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