Julie Zielinski sits in a chair, her hands duct taped together behind her back, in the basement of Pemberton Hall..

She screams and tears run down her face.

“Help!” the sophomore theater major screamed. “Somebody help me!”

“No one can hear you,” Joe Lucarelli said as he walked in front of her. He placed his hand on her forehead messing up her hair. She dies.

Joe Lucarelli is the director and actor in a small movie called “Ragdoll,” produced by Mountain Wind Productions that decided Pemberton would be a good spot to film some scenes.

“It’s a cool, historical building,” Lucarelli said.

The movie is a murder-mystery with a science fiction emphasis, though no one would reveal what the movie is actually about.

“None of (the actors) really know what’s going on,” Zielinski said. “When we talk about our scenes, we can’t really figure out how they fit together.”

Zielinski received an e-mail in March from the theater department telling anyone who was interested in being in “Ragdoll” to e-mail Lucarelli with their headshot and resume.

“I just thought it would be super cool to be in a movie,” Zielinski said.

Tyson Kroening, a junior electronic media production major, also responded to the same e-mail.

“Why not give it a try?” Kroening said.

Kroening said he has been making movies since he was nine and wanted to help with “Ragdoll.”

Kroening started off as a production assistant for the movie but has worked his way up to assistant director.

Payge Schagemann-Jones, a theater productions major, originally auditioned for one of the lead parts in the movie. Although she did not get the part, Schagemann-Jones became in charge of props and make-up.

“(In theater) everything is pretty homemade,” she said. “Everything is pretty much bought here.”

Schagemann-Jones is in charge of keeping track of the props including a handgun and doing touch-ups for the actors’ make-up.

Along with being filmed in Pemberton, the movie has also been filmed in Mattoon and Pittsburgh where Lucarelli lives. However, Lucarelli has moved around a lot and went to Mattoon High School.

“The movie is about legends that become aggregated from the real truth,” he said.

The staff hopes to submit the film to the Sundance festival.

The whole staff bounces ideas off of each other as they try to figure out what would look best in a scene. As Zielinski sits in her chair, the staff tries to figure out what would be the best way to kill her.

“Just step in front of her and do your deed,” Kroening said.

Courtney Bruner can be reached at 581-7942 or

[email protected].