Film Production student Tabitha Immanuel (New Delhi, India)

On March 27th, in the Umble Center on Goshen College’s campus, a year’s worth of work for a team of over fifteen students will culminate in the premiere of their documentary, “Deep Dive: A Midwestern Legacy in the Florida Keys”. Filming a documentary in the Florida Keys doesn’t sound like the kind of college class most people experience, but for a group of Goshen College Film Production students this is how they spent their month of May last year. The film chronicles the over 50 year history of Goshen College’s Marine Biology program and the relationships built with the Layton, FL community where the facility is housed.

Last May six film students joined 12 biology students for a three-week course taught at GC’s J. N. Roth Marine Biology Station in Layton,Florida on Long Key. In it’s 51st year of operation, this course combined elements of communication and biology for an immersion in not only the community of Layton, but the differing disciplines as well.

Film Production student Takoda Friesen (Goshen, IN)

Biology students were enrolled in an upper level marine biology course, taught by Jody Saylor, associate professor of biology, while communication students took part in the class titled Advanced Digital Media Immersion, taught by Kyle Hufford, assistant professor of communication and FiveCore Media general manager.

The film students literally got in the water with the biology students to participate in and film some of their activities and projects.

Film Production student Riley Mills (Milltown, IN)

“One part that was really striking for me was how much I learned about marine biology,” said Riley Mills, a senior communication major. “I wasn’t participating in their research, but filming them and talking with the students gave us a lot to learn.”

Saylor agreed, saying, “It was exciting for me and the biology students to share our love of science and to introduce new ecology concepts and new organisms to the film students, but

it was also interesting to see the course from the film student’s perspective. It made me think about the course in new ways.”

The film students worked to create a documentary focused on highlighting the legacy of the marine biology program and its relationship with the surrounding community.

At times, the film crew went door-to-door in to see if community members were interested in being interviewed. “The students had to figure out who to talk to and do a lot of research on the ground to arrange things,” Hufford said. He added that the town of Layton played a big part in the development of the story. “The community itself is really a character in the documentary, and the majority of interviews were community members,” he said. Being outside of Goshen offered film students the chance to engage with storytelling in a different way.

Biology professor, Jody Saylor, is interviewed

They filled the roles of a traditional film crew, including producer and director, and worked to develop skills in working as a team to produce a large-scale product. The course also gave film students the opportunity to work with different equipment and develop a different set of skills. With the use of a drone to capture aerial footage and small, underwater cameras to capture shots of biology students working beneath the surface, film students gained a wider understanding of the tools needed for different settings.

“While we were learning what it was like to build a documentary,” said Mills, “we also learned about biology and the effects that the center has had on the community.”

Biology student Jose Chiquito Galvan (Goshen, IN)

Sophomore biology student Jose Chiquito Galvan spoke to the connection between the disciplines that took place in Layton. “The film students were amazing to work with,” he said. “They provided us as Goshen College a much needed way to reconnect with the community of Layton. Through their film interviews and work, we were able to better understand the community we lived and studied in.” “The biology students were learning from the film students and the film students were learning from the biology students, and they were sharing back and forth what they were doing,” said Hufford. “Everybody was curious about each other’s projects and what they were working on.”

The premiere of “Deep Dive” is Tuesday, March 27th at 7pm in the Umble Center theater on the campus of Goshen College. This is a free event and the public is encouraged to attend. There will be a Q&A after the 25min film with students and faculty, and refreshments following that.