‘Oh-fer’ debut
SCCA professor Dr. Carey Martin releases new film
The short film, “Oh-fer,” debuted March 24 in the Hancock Welcome Center. Written and directed by digital media professor Carey Martin, “Oh-fer” follows the story of Craig, a young boy struggling in little league baseball. His older sister Dawn learns that Craig has struck out every game of the season, and at the end of the film, the audience learns that Craig needs glasses to hit the baseball.
Filmed in Lynchburg and the surrounding communities in summer 2015, Liberty alumni had the opportunity to partner with Martin for this project. “Oh-fer” was filmed in just three days, with an average of seven pages of script being filmed per day, according to Martin.
Premiere — “Oh-fer” started as a short story written by Carey Martin in graduate-school, then developed and was filmed during the summer of 2015. Photo provided
“Oh-fer” originally began as a short story Martin wrote while in graduate school.
“My instructor loved it and said that I should do something with it,” Martin said. “At the time that I wrote it, I really didn’t have anything to do with it. But, of course, I held on to it … If I had ever tossed the story, (the film) wouldn’t have happened.”
One summer at Liberty, Martin rewrote his short story into a script. Martin then entered it into the Broadcast Education Association Festival, where it won first place in the faculty division.
Afterwards, Martin pitched the script to Mirari Pictures, a production company headed by a Liberty alumni, who helped bring the script to the silver screen.
The debut of “Oh-fer” at Liberty was attended by more than 150 students, faculty and community members who offered praise after the screening.
Martin attended Northwestern University for his bachelor’s degree in Radio, Film and Television. After working for five years, he attended Florida State University and earned his Master of Fine Arts and Ph. D in Communication.
Martin currently teaches at Liberty at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, with a focus in digital media and transmedia. He offered advice for students looking into pursuing both short story writing and scriptwriting.
“The old adage of ‘write what you know’ is a great place to start,” Martin said.
Martin drew on his own experiences in little league to create “Oh-fer,” both in its original short story form and later as it evolved into a script and film. Years passed between the original writing of “Oh-fer” and its film debut at Liberty. However, Martin has advice for writers who may have a story they want to hold onto and craft further.
“I would say the number one piece of advice I can give is never give up,” Martin said. “If you never give up, you might be surprised at what you can achieve.”
MOYER is a feature reporter.