FAYETTEVILLE-MANLIUS SCHOOL DISTRICT – Looking back on her time as a student at Fayetteville-Manlius High School, Chelsea Roth warmly recalls the theater elective she signed up for at the start of her freshman year as one of the top highlights.
“It was taught by this veteran instructor, and it was the first opportunity that I got to read plays, act, and work with different styles and movements,” Roth said. “I loved that class.”
During those teenage years, she developed an appreciation for the James Lipton-hosted talk show “Inside the Actors Studio” as well as the works of Tennessee Williams, Caryl Churchill, Stephen Sondheim and other playwrights, all while becoming even more enwrapped in dramatics as a helper at Syracuse Stage.
Before long Roth began setting her sights on the bright lights of New York City, the dreamt-of destination that she moved to immediately after her graduation from the North Carolina School of the Arts—a conservatory that itself gave her a larger glimpse into the worlds of film, theater, opera and dance.
Upon her arrival in the Big Apple, Roth obtained a job on Broadway doing hair, makeup and prosthetics for a show with a short-lived run, but her path soon led to a gig at Bob Kelly’s Wig Creations, a studio on West 46th Street well-known for its fashioning of theatrical wigs for films and television programs like “Saturday Night Live.”
After a while, her interest in storytelling grew larger and larger until it overtook her previous focus on makeup artistry and costume creation. In due time, she met her future husband, Hamza Zaman, at an organized writers group, and from there the two churned out half a dozen short films and put on half a dozen street plays in addition to attending minor-level film festivals.
As their partnership proceeded, the couple’s next step, apart from marrying, was to finally “go for it” and make their first full-length feature. The end result is a horror film out now cryptically entitled “The Institute.”
From the conception of the idea to the writing of the script to post-production, the process to make the new genre film took close to three years, Roth said. That timeline did, however, include strategic budgetary cuts, shooting delays and other setbacks caused by the fallout of COVID, not to mention the introduction of a mid-pandemic testing model imitating that of the NBA Bubble.
Through it all, though, everything happened to work out according to the F-M grad, who said the renting of a then-deserted summer camp in the “scenic” and “therapeutic” Catskill Mountains made all the difference in atmosphere.
“It really bonded the cast and crew,” Roth said. “We ended up having such a good time there even though the shooting days were super long.”
Directed by Zaman and executive produced by Roth, “The Institute” follows two young lovers desperate to have a child who find themselves joining two other couples in receiving homeopathic remedies at a renowned doctor’s exclusive, remote medical facility, only to realize that danger lurks in the vicinity.
Roth said the narrative arc pays a slight homage to the 1968 film “Rosemary’s Baby” and that it similarly retains a “slow-burning” feel, an examination of power dynamics and an eeriness that can’t quite be placed.
“There’s something in it for almost everyone over 18,” she said. “We’ve gotten that it’s very entertaining and complex, that it’s a great popcorn flick, and that it’s great for a weekend watch with a date.”
On top of producing the 90-minute psychological thriller film, Roth contributed to wardrobe design, fundraising, budgeting, the shaping of the business plan, the recruitment of cast and crew members, the distribution phase and the advertising following the domestic release.
Zaman also wore several hats, Roth said, adding that his focus and inspiration increased the more balls he juggled in the air.
Brought to fruition with Headless Films, Whiptail Wallaby Productions and Conducive Productions, “The Institute” was released last month on multiple video-on-demand platforms, on satellite and cable networks and on Blu-Ray/DVD at select retailers. The official trailer has been posted to YouTube by the Gravitas Ventures channel.
