Here’s the thing about Film Production students – they’re never quite satisfied with making a ‘typical’ student film. There’s always an extra little kick.

Take Broken Sword: Shadow of the Blade. Helmed by Pat McEleney and crewed by current students, the short features katana-wielding samurai, which meant hiring on a professional stunt coordinator for the shoot – a program first, to the best of our knowledge. The shoot took the crew to Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden and the top of Burnaby Mountain, but it was back in the studio that we caught up with Producer Zach Sowinski to find out how Broken Sword came to be.

“Me and Pat, back in Term 2, decided that we wanted to do a final together,” he says. “He had already decided that he wanted to do a samurai film.”

But, to keep a safe set, shooting fight scenes takes very careful planning. It’s an obstacle that can easily sink a student production. Then came Captive, and that was all the inspiration the filmmakers needed to make Broken Sword happen.

“Why not push it a bit?” Zach says. “See if we can do something that pushes the boundaries that no student’s done before?”

That’s the thing we’re talking about.

Check out this slideshow of behind the scenes photos from the studio shoot: