Crew Bios

Director - Anthony Muscolino

Anthony is a senior at the University of North Carolina Wilmington majoring in Film Studies and minoring in Psychology.  He has worked with TealTV as lead editor for two years, interned at Cine Partners, and completed a directed independent study working Dave Monahan’s documentary Grahamland.

Cinematographer - Josh Ludwig

Josh is a senior at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, majoring in Film Studies.  He recently was the cinematographer on a short documentary about the Duplin Winery at Rose Hill, NC entitled Passing It On, which was accepted in the Praxis Film Festival.  He was also recently camera operator for an art installation project on the university campus entitled “Face Age” directed by Dave Monahan.  Joshua is currently completing two              directed independent studies, one being Grahamland directed by Dave Monahan and the other Heart At Home directed by Lou Buttino.





Producer - Philip Varvaris

Philip is a senior at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, majoring in Film Studies.  He recently directed a short documentary on the Duplin winery of Rose Hill, NC entitled Passing It On, which was accepted into the Praxis Film Festival. He has also completed an internship with African Inland Missions' On-field Media department in Nairobi, Kenya.

Master Budget

Shooting Schedule and Equipment List

Shooting Schedule:

• February 17th -Interview Coach Lyle
• March 2nd - Interview 1st set of boxers
• March 9th-10th - NC Golden Gloves
• March 31st-April 1st - VA Golden Gloves
• April 13th, 14th, 15th - NC Azalea Festival

Equipment List:

• D5100, 60D,  AF100, CP 16
• Arri Kit, PAR lights, 2 soft boxes
• H4N audio recorder
• 3 XLR cables
• 2 wireless lav mics, 1 shotgun mic, headphones
• 2 tripods

Tag Line & Synopsis

"When it comes to amateur boxing, you learn about life first and boxing second."

Amateur boxing coach and trainer, Lyle Booker, has a good understanding that young men (and women) need to be taught respect & discipline early on in life before peer pressure steers them in the opposite direction. Living by the golden rule - "One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself" - Lyle preaches to the kids that come to the gym that they need to learn to respect themselves before they step foot inside the ring. Out of the hundreds of kids he's trained over his lifetime he's had about four kids that just never bought in to his philosophies. One of his positive examples is Chris Cromartie, a 21 year old amateur boxer and manager at Wilmington Coastal Boxing. Chris has many motivations to make a successful career out of boxing, most importantly his son. However, if he never makes "big" he will still be a success to himself and Lyle because  he obtained the attributes to be a good person through learning how to box.

"Devotional Cinema" Response (Joshua)

The idea that film can be powerful and even scary is something that has stayed with me for most of my life. The beginnings of such a power began with my father and his collection of Star Trek episodes on VHS. Considered hokey by today’s standards, the story and action of certain episodes affected me on a visceral level back when I was child. While filmmaking technology has progressed by leaps and bounds since then, cinema itself still holds the same power that it did back when I was young. This is what inspires me in my own filmmaking, a singular experience that brings together unknowns and evolves them into something that is known.

There have very few films that have changed the way I look at the world and how it works. I can count on my hands how many films that have done this. The idea that Dorsky puts forth in his book regarding how cinema changes how one sees the world is something that is lost in today’s cinema. In my filmmaking I hope to broaden this idea and make it more accessible to the viewing audiences.

Too many films are on the extreme edges of what they wish to represent. One side is the experimental genre, which alienates a majority of the viewer public, and the other is the soulless moneymaker of big budget Hollywood. Through his view on how cinema can be viewed, it is my belief that films can go between these two extremes and can be both entertaining and enlightening, and be able to reach a broad audience. In my present and future filmmaking I hope to achieve this. I see the benefits that the two extremes can have. When put together they can create an experience that resonates and changes a viewer. Films have had and still have the power to change the way we view the world, it is my hope that my filmmaking can propel this change to both new and old audiences. 

Devotional Cinema Response (Philip)

    In Devotional Cinema, Nathaniel Dorsky emphasizes how film form, more so than content, are largely influential in how we experience film.  Throughout the book he uses dramatic imagery and even stories from his childhood illustrating how impacting a few hours in a dark movie theater can alter ones perception of the outside world.  Before becoming a film student I always thought about movies in terms of “is this story believable and entertaining.”  Now in my Senior year as a Film Studies major I view films with a more discerning eye: “is this the best shot or the best cut to use in order to tell this story in the best way it can be told.”  After reading this book I am more aware that I need to pay just as much detail to the production of my own films as I do when watching others.  As a result, the experience of our film’s audience will be enhanced.
    Unlike in narrative, documentary film-making consists of fewer formal constraints in how to tell a particular story.  This book has brought to my attention that no matter what category of film-making, every shots composition in the frame and every cuts position on the timeline is important to telling a story.  The sky is the limit when it comes to the production of our film but we need to understand that every decision is vital to the experience of our film.  Even if there is a shot specifically placed in our film to describe something literally, if that placement breaks the spatial and poetic bounds of our film than we should setup another shot or re-cut that part of our film. 
    In shooting this documentary our film team could ‘get away’ with not being as meticulous in our production but instead by paying close attention to detail throughout the process, our story will not only be much more poignant but it will also be more effective at building a positive viewing experience for the audience.

"Devotional Cinema" Response (Anthony)

After reading Devotional Cinema by Nathaniel Dorsky, I was unsure how to react to his view of filmmaking and viewing. He expressed thoughts on subjects that were probably out of my league. For me, I’ve always had a “Neanderthal-like” train of thought when it comes to making films: Camera. Subject. Story. Done. Granted, I do put more thought than just that into the process, however, Dorsky’s book goes to a whole other level.

Early in his book he mentions how after a six-hour movie-going session the details in his eyes and mind were amplified as he walked out the theater. “All those little details were presenting themselves to me in a way I was unused to”. As he described the experience I realized that I should take advantage to acknowledge detail as he does. Because, in filmmaking you always have a “big” picture played out in your head, which is healthy so you have a general idea of beginning, middle and end. However, to accomplish this process in a more fascinating way, details must be embellished narratively and visually.  In the case of our boxing documentary, I can’t be satisfied with just HOW the coaches have changed the live the young men at the gym but WHY they chose to help change their lives when, after all, all they just wanted to learn how to box. And to have these details revealed I must be proactive in my awareness of them rather an relying on subtleness to all of a sudden jump out at me one day.

Another topic Dorsky touches on, Shots and Cuts, was also enlightening. He talks about how “cuts seem to work in a hierarchy”. With so much detail, I’ve never analyzed cuts to such a degree. First, cuts have to have to work on a visual level and each cut has to “create a visual freshness for the psyche”. When a cut works visually, he mentions two after shocks may occur, dream connectives or literal implications. Though I think that could both work simultaneously to some degree, either must be accomplished per cut. With the boxing documentary I must keep this in mind during the editing process. Every cut has a purpose. Visual images can’t be put together because I like them. They’re must be a reason why I leave one cut advance to the next.