A young filmmaker who lives in Windsor will get some big exposure on Saturday, March 4: Her short film will be broadcast on the New England Sports Network, just before a live 12:30 afternoon broadcast of a Red Sox spring-training game.
Sintia Arelus, a senior studying communications-journalism at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, made “By Any Means,” shot at her home, about a young basketball player struggling to achieve his dreams.
She cast her brother Jefferson Arelus in the lead role. Jefferson Arelus is a senior and a basketball player at Windsor High School.
Sintia Arelus’ film is part of NESN’s series “Next Producer,” which shines a light on filmmakers attending colleges in New England whose work focuses on sports. Competitors in “Next Producer” vie for $20,000 and a job opportunity at the Watertown, Mass.-based NESN.
In an interview, Arelus, 28, a Bloomfield High grad, said her film professor at CCSU, Jeffrey Teitler, mentioned the filmmaking competition in class last September. She told him she was interested but had never made a film before.
“I knew how to do news-related packages with my camera but nothing beyond that,” Arelus said. “He said it would be hard work and the learning would be accelerated. I wanted to do it.
“I started from scratch. He taught me everything I needed to know to create a great product. He pushed me every single day, text messages back and forth, did I shoot that day, what results I got, how to make the lighting better.”
She had a first draft to NESN by the October deadline and a final draft by the November deadline.
Arelus said she is “kind of nervous” about the broadcast on Saturday. She said she will watch it with family members and a few friends.
Other students from Connecticut colleges competed in this year’s season of the show, which began in February. Two Trinity students, Peter Jung and Daming Xing, will show their film “Pickup” on NESN on Saturday, March 11, at 4 p.m.
Viewers can see all the films and vote on them at NESNnext.com.
