NEWS & EVENTS
July 17
2024
Alumni Blog: Khalil Walker
BFA Film graduate Khalil Walker’s alumni blog gives us a behind the scenes look inside the making of his 2024 thesis film, Pass Da Mic.
This film journey started over a year ago. I was working on a film called Dad’s Weekend.
It was about a son visiting his dad for a weekend, and during the visit, the dad gets caught in the middle of owing money to a drug dealer. As a result, the dad is forced to bring his son into adult matters to try to make that money back. The film itself didn’t turn out well; I faced many difficulties, but it was my first attempt at a father-son relationship story. I was exploring different ideas and ways to express this dynamic and highlight it within the community. From there, a seed started to grow, and I began writing different drafts for my thesis that became Pass Da Mic. It was challenging to tell an authentic story without copying or retelling stories that I’d seen on TV or in movies.
Weed Stinks was the title of my first draft.
It was heavily influenced by Boyz n the Hood, and wasn’t exactly my voice. I realized I needed to tell a more personal story. I reached out to professors to find a thesis advisor and connected with Brian Gonzalez. His work is great, and he encouraged me to delve deeper within myself to discover exactly what I wanted to say and explore how I wanted to express it. So, for the whole summer I would get up every morning at four or five o’clock, go to my car, and have two-hour self-talks. I recorded these sessions on my phone, asking myself questions about my story, my characters, and their symbolism. This process helped me dissect everything within me that needed to be expressed.
From there, I began developing characters, a storyline, and a script.
The script went through 28 different versions. I completed my final draft ten days before filming began. The writing process bled into production, and there were times during the production of my thesis film when I was rewriting scenes the day before or even the day of shooting. This improvisation helped me with production, which was a two-part process. The first part was in February, and it was extremely cold. We shot for three days, and it was great. An actor named Elliot Young flew from Georgia to New Jersey to work with me, and his performance really pushed the younger actors, helping us nail a football scene.
We faced difficulties between the first and second parts of the shoot, particularly in finding a new crew.
My producer, Sasha, who is also my girlfriend and life partner, helped me gather the right team. The second part of the shoot was in March, which was cutting it close to the April deadline. Despite the pressure, I managed to stay focused through breathing techniques, meditation, and advice from Brian Gonzalez. My DP, Kenny Ding, was a tremendous help, showing up consistently from the beginning. My production designer, Anadia Jaghai, and many others like Jessica NG, Jack Zhang, Kobe Cyrus and Gladdy Santana, played crucial roles in bringing this film to life.
Post-production was the most difficult phase, as I had limited time to edit the entire film and do the sound work by myself. Despite the challenges, meditation and breathing exercises helped me push through. The overall theme of my film and thesis process was about letting go. I had to let go of things I thought were important and follow the flow of the film. This experience taught me to be intuitive with my art and trust my heart. Pass Da Mic, is 12 minutes long, and I’m currently submitting it to various festivals. I hope to make it a feature film when I return to SVA for my master’s degree.
I dedicated this film to my grandfather.
He was my father figure and passed away last year in November from prostate cancer. It was very very hard to write this but throughout the process I had to deal with his passing. I couldn’t make this film without his help throughout the years and his dying last wish to finish film school.