News and Media

Published: Oct 24, 2011

The idea for "Extinction" came to SCAD film and television professor Kevin McCarey while producing natural history films in South Africa for National Geographic. The region is famed for its wealth of fossils from the Permian Age, a time that featured Earth's greatest extinction event.

In his research, McCarey came across a document in which a paleontologist described seeing smoke rise over a ridge. The paleontologist's guide explained that if it's Thursday, it must be cremation day. So many villagers died of AIDS each week that no room existed in graveyards.

"That a real-life extinction event was occurring where scientists were researching one that happened 250 million years ago struck me as sadly ironic," McCarey said. "I also learned that the villagers often have a gift for reading the landscape for bones. These discoveries inspired the narrative: paleontologists befriend a Xhosa youth, Sipho, with a gift for finding fossils. But his village is experiencing its own extinction event."

Nearly 100 students and eight professors from a multitude of artistic backgrounds collaborated in making "Extinction." Sculpture students created the faux fossils the characters would find. The traditional African garb they would wear was created by costume design students. Performing arts students provided acting talent and dialogue coaching. And sound design students provided professional recording and post work.

"It provided a golden opportunity for us to work together toward common creative academic goals," McCarey said.

The same talent these students will take to the professional world was at work during the filming of "Extinction." Filming took place in 100-degree weather in Savannah, Georgia.

"Everyone persevered," he said. "I've worked with countless professional film crews over the years, and the SCAD student crew ranks up there with the best."

The greatest challenge in filming, however, was not the heat. The cast had to learn to speak English with a Xhosa accent. Two of the actors had to learn to speak all their lines in Xhosa. Xhosa is a very difficult "click" language.

"Fortunately," McCarey said, "SCAD's performing arts department has a wonderful dialogue coach, Vivian Majkowski, who received her master's from Harvard in South African dialects. She coached the cast to speak with near flawless accents."

The experience of working on a professional short changed the students and reinforced McCarey's belief that SCAD has a wealth of talent.

"There is no other film school that can draw upon such an amazing variety of creative disciplines," he said.

B.F.A. film and television student and one of the film's student producers Danika Burtt agreed.

"Working on a professional short means you have to find the best people in every department to reach the standards that you set for a film," she said. "It was a great opportunity to work with a lot of people that I might not have otherwise met."

She added that her experiences at SCAD prepared her to succeed in the role of producer for "Extinction."

"Without having all my professors hold me to high standards, I would not have been able to cope with the amount of work that came with making a professional short," Burtt said. "If you practice filmmaking on a high level, then you will perform on a high level when you get a job. SCAD taught me how to perform on a high level."

In addition to the support McCarey and the film received from SCAD students, professors and the Savannah theater community, McCarey received a SCAD Presidential Fellowship grant. "Extinction" premiered at the Treasure Cost Film Festival and has screened at film festivals in Atlanta, Georgia; Vail, Colorado; New York City; and Grand Bahama, among others. A screening will be held at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31, in the newly expanded SCAD Museum of Art with a question-and-answer session to follow.