Ex-Penn hoopster making strides on Palestra movie

If you saw someone walking around the Palestra with a video camera during "The Line", you might be about to appear in a movie.

2004 Penn graduate Mikaelyn Austin dropped by the annual basketball party -- in which she participated for four years as a member of the Quakers women's team -- to shoot the festivities as part of her documentary about the history of the Palestra.

"It's going quite well," she said. "It takes a lot longer than I had assumed it would, but I guess that's what happens when you're doing something more professional."

The bulk of Austin's time so far has been taken up interviewing a wide range of sports luminaries associated with the Palestra. Austin said she has now interviewed 23 people, with the most recent interviewees including Temple coach John Chaney, Penn coach Fran Dunphy, and former La Salle star Doug Overton.

Clips of many of the interviews are available on Austin's Web site, palestradocumentary.com.

Austin said that she has talked to almost everyone she has wanted to.

"We are about three interviews away from essentially being done with principal filming," she said. "We'll start post-production or editing before we finish those interviews."

Austin added that all the people she has talked to have been very pleased with her work.

"I have not had a single negative reception to it," she said. "I've had a lot of gentlemen who have strongly advised as to who to interview and whatnot, but everybody I've talked to thinks it's a wonderful project -- most people are like, 'I can't believe nobody's done it.'"

The only question left now is how long the movie will be.

"It really depends on how good of a job I do on the post-production," Austin said. "It's me, the editor [Steve Pack] and the edit machine in a steel-cage death match."

Austin is also getting help from a production crew with strong ties to the Big 5.

The coordinating producer, Carey Smith, is a 1994 Saint Joseph's grad. He is currently the head of 215 Sports and Entertainment, a Philadelphia-based production company. Smith previously worked with Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia and ESPN Classic.

Smith hired Michael Vechesky to be the director of photography. He has a wide range of experience with all the major networks and sports events. He also has a Villanova degree from the same year that Smith graduated on Hawk Hill.

Despite the fierce rivalry between the two schools, Austin says that Smith and Vechesky get along quite well.

In addition to their production work, Austin's partners have a financial stake in the film's success.

"They took a cut on their normal fee of how much it would cost for their services for a kickback on the end, assuming there's a profit for it," Austin said.

She added that the rest of the budget for the film is coming "from alumni investors."

The final step in the production process will be to get the movie distributed. Austin said she hopes to get the movie on television.

"I'm hoping to be able to do some kind of broadcast release -- that would be my ultimate goal," she said.

Austin added that College Sports TV has expressed interest in releasing it. She also did not, rule out a local distribution through a channel such as CN8.

"Local is fine obviously, but the ultimate goal would be national," she said.

Regardless, Austin said that she will not be able to finalize a distribution deal until filming is completely finished, which she anticipates will be sometime next spring.

"They're aware of the film; they support it," Austin said. "If I'm allowed to do a showing -- I can't do a showing if I do a broadcast release because they explicitly won't let you -- I'm hoping that we'll have something that we'll be able to work into the Big 5 celebration."

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