Who Murdered Professor Black?

The Making of “Who Murdered Professor Black?”
Written by Henry Holloway

On the crisp warm evening of April 23rd, 2023, the cream-colored leaves of dogwoods hang outside the towering stone building known as Franklin Hall. With the words, “A good book is the lifeblood of a master spirit,” many may not realize what is accomplished when students walk up the steps past the late Ernie Pyle typing away, up the stone steps, as they then disappear through the wooden, castle-like doors adorned by a small lamp hanging off to the side.

It is from here that just down the slope through the sample gates of Indiana University, the gleaming, sparkling, iconic downtown sign with the word, “Indiana” on it can be seen, illuminating the bustling stretch known as Kirkwood.

It is this sign that stands to assert the existence of The Buskirk Chumley Theater, a historic, homely Bloomington landmark, and on this particular evening, home to something historic itself; the premiere of the student-made mystery crime drama “Who Murdered Professor Black?”

With the eerie, mysterious sounds of a repetitive piano looming in the background, and a flash of scenes varying between black and white, the grand, gothic limestone campus of Indiana University, situated in southern Indiana’s rolling hills and forests is presented on film as it’s never been seen before, as the setting of a dark, dramatic, and oftentimes humorous, literary, tragic, and even romantic drama entitled, “Who Murdered Professor Black?”

Directed by IU Media School Student and incoming senior Max Peeples, and starring IU Media School students and stand-up comedians Jonathan Zapf and Ana Mercado, alongside IU alumnas Max Pattison and Matt Rosin as Professor Black, Who Murdered Professor Black depicts IU as it’s never been seen before, placing it within the context of a contemporary neo noir detective thriller.

Not only did the production successfully exhibit the potential of skillfully honing an original, student led production without the bankrolling of high profile Hollywood executives, it also exhibited how the suspension of disbelief may not be as tricky as one would imagine, as illuminated by the patient and captivating brilliance of the various artists involved, both on and off camera. It was Max’s years of experience that built up to this ephemeral moment in his filmmaking career, as it all began when he was just 13 years old.

“I think my first ever short film project that really started me, it was a documentary about a shovel, and it was like a minute long, and my brother did a voiceover, and he played the shovel character,” Peeples said. “And it was basically, “a day in the life of a shovel.” And he had all of his friends, like a snow shovel, a garden shovel, and stuff like that. Just you know, showed up like that, and that was my first ever real movie that I made.”

It was from that point onward that Peeples began developing his craft over a period of years.

“I think the first real thing that got me into film, was my cousin Claire, who was one of my best friends growing up,” Peeples said. “It sounds goofy, but she made a vine, and I saw videos cut together, and it was the easiest thing in the world, and I was like, “Oh my God! Someone I know has cut together video clips.” And it was just shocking. So then I downloaded a video editing app and tried to do it myself, and I just got so obsessed with it, just creating things. Creating an oeuvre, which led me basically to just making movies and short films all of the time.”

Not only has Peeples been making films for nearly a decade, this is also not his first rodeo when it comes to presenting his own work publicly.

“This isn’t my first premiere, believe it or not,” Peeples said. “I, actually, had a premiere in 2019 for another movie that I did. It was much, you know, smaller, like 30 minutes long. And that was literally just me goofing around with my friends. And we made a movie, and we showed it at my high school auditorium. I went to school in Indianapolis, so it was this decently sized auditorium, and we filled it up pretty well.”

It was from that point onward that Peeples gained routine experience working on and off the camera, commencing his high school’s news program.

“But once I got to high school then, I started the news program,” Peeples said. “The first news video program at the high school. And that started getting a lot of views, and there’d be people who’d come up to me, you know, that I didn’t know, like teachers, or like, faculty, kids of faculty, and they’d be like, “Oh my God. We sit around as a family and watch your news program.” You know what I mean? Because it was just goofy stuff. It wasn’t actual news. Just trying to make like funny sketches, or like, whatever you do, like goofy youtube videos around the school.”

Peeples reflects fondly on the shenanigans of a bygone era in his life.

“One time we did a “What would you do?” segment, just have kids get in fights around the school, and see what teachers would do, and stuff like that,” Peeples said. “But yeah, that’s the biggest thing up until now, I would say, just making this movie. That’s the cliffnotes of the progression.”

Peeples’s progression as a filmmaker made the collaboration all the more suitable for Zapf.

“I think a major reason why I was so excited was that I had never heard of a student, especially Max’s age, going and funding and shooting a full feature length film,” Zapf said. “I think that's due in part to his long experience with short films. He’s been doing short films since he was very young. This just felt like the kind of natural next step for him.”

Peeples himself knows the extent to which he has expressed his passion for filmmaking to his fellow cast and crew members.

“I’m sure you could talk to any of the cast, and they’d just be like, “Yeah. He’s pretty obsessed with this,” Peeples said. “But, yeah, it’s just non stop creating videos, and that’s really how I’m able to hone it and try to get better. I feel like there’s been a good evolution along the way, and I’m hoping to still get better. But, yeah, it’s really just making movies whenever I can and as much as I can. You know.”

In addition to Peeples’ ambition as a filmmaker, it was the narratively contrasting dynamics that made the project all the more compelling for Zapf.

“His excitement and his belief in the script were contagious, I think to the point where I definitely wanted to be a part of it, and it was a lot of fun to play the same character over a long period of time,” Zapf said. “It was the first time given that opportunity. And it was certainly out of my comfort zone. I’m much more familiar with comedy and big characters with a lot of voices, and he wanted me to be carrying on to playing this very stoic overly dramatic guy that didn’t talk very much, and when he did it, it wasn’t very loud, and not exactly comedic, at all.”

Zapf’s experience with comedy serviced the film well, as in Peeples view, one of the more difficult aspects of the project to pull off was the gradual transition from a light-hearted comedy to a darker, noir crime drama.

“I think at the end of the day, the best product was the mystery stuff,” Peeples said. “But the whole idea was that evolution from comedy to drama. And for a second there, we didn’t think we had pulled it off. But then we got further into the edit, and it kept coming along and we kept doing test screens, and it started to come along, that maybe that tonal shift actually did work. That gradient succeeded, which was super nice to hear.”

Mercado was likewise attracted to the role of the villain, partly due to being able to empathize with the motivations of the murderess, an added layer of subversive humanity that managed to reach beyond the typical murder mystery, further complicated by an ensuing romantic tension between Mercado’s character, Akima Armstrong, and Monroe.

“I never expected it to be anything this big,” Mercado said of the film’s development.

While showcasing the talents of Zapf, Mercado, and Pattison in the contrasting dynamics of differing partnerships, the interpersonal drama is further enriched by the complications of personal grievances and failures, further deepening a gripping plot.

Surrounded by vistas covered with green like a forest of broccoli by Spring and Summer, and shrouded in the orange and crimson hues of maple and cedars by Fall, as well as an array of rigid limestone quarries and hidden, mysterious streams of spring water trickling along beds of rock in underground caverns running below the surface of the Earth, it’s fitting that the picturesque college town of Bloomington, Indiana and it’s iconic campus would be the setting of a mystery enriched by intrigue, tragedy, and romance.

With an eclectic cast led by fellow IU Juniors and Media School students Johnathan Zapf and Ana Mercado, Who Murdered Professor Black? is a riveting crime drama that follows fictional IU criminology students turned detectives Nick Monroe and Roman Rodgers, played by Zapf and IU graduate Max Pattison, respectively, as they embark on a daring venture to solve the murder of a Professor by the name of Professor Black (Matt Rosin).

Along the way, Nick strikes up a friendship with a charmingly smart, young, beautiful and witty classmate by the name of Akimi Armstrong, who he enlists to assist him in solving the case, before a shocking reveal.

Despite being Peeples’ first feature length film, the film manages to outdo most of the recent developments across a variety of genres, including romance dramas geared towards younger audiences, crime dramas, and mysteries, as it is both meticulously paced and narratively structured, serving as what is a perhaps a cross between the likes of John Hughes and Alfred Hitchcock.

The film manages to enamor its audience in a compellingly deep variation of the oftentimes cliched “Who done it? genre,” managing to successfully realize the potential of an original script while being viewed by an audience of those who mostly knew the cast and even sat alongside them in the opulent, yet quaint and homely downtown theater.

“When I first conceived of it, I was really into the idea of solving a puzzle and writing a puzzle sort of mystery thing,” Peeples said. “And creating all of these different things that happened along the way, and unfolding this story in a certain way.”

It was over the course of two years that Peeples developed this project.

“I probably started writing in fall of 2021,” Peeples said. “Then I casted it the Spring of 2022, shot Summer, started editing in the Fall, obviously all the way up until now. So basically, nine months of editing.”

It was the two genres of noir and mystery that inspired Peeples most heavily in his conceptualization of his own artistic work.

“Basically, I committed an entire fall semester into just writing this project,” Peeples said. “That was really when I did my deep dive on Noir. I already knew a lot about the mystery genre. So that wasn’t as hard.”

It was also through this project that Peeples learned a great deal about how to deal with issues pertaining to cost efficiency as a creator.

“As of now, the budget was $3,000. A thousand of it went to new audio equipment. A thousand of it went to casting, and the other thousand was just getting locations like the bowling alley and the props.”

Peeples emphasizes the importance of cutting costs when necessary.

“We tried to stay away from building sets, and working in places that are already established,” Peeples said.

When it came to filming, IU’s many resources and Peeples’ own Bloomington residence came heavily in handy.

“That apartment that Nick is in for the whole movie, that is my apartment which I just transformed into a new set,” Peeples said. “So, the whole Summer I was basically just living in this set. That is not normally how my apartment would look. But, yeah, we started and we transformed it into whatever this character would be living in. Took down all of my nerdy posters and stuff like that. Other than that, there weren’t really a whole lot of sets that we built.”

Peeples jokes of the adjustments he had to make in his temporarily altered living situation.

“I didn’t want to take [pictures of Jonathan] down in case a shoot day came up and I forgot to put them back up,” Peeples said. “So I was literally in my apartment making cereal in the morning with a picture of Jonathan and his fake movie girlfriend on my desk.

It was cutting costs where necessary that paid off in the end, permitting the film to be showcased at the opulent Buskirk Chumley, right in the heart of downtown Bloomington.

“That was kind of a special thing that Max did, “Zapf said. “He’s a self proclaimed “very cheap man,” but when it comes to his movies, he doesn’t spare any expense.”

It was also Peeples’ Media school connections that were of great use as well.

“The bar, that was actually a set that was made already,” Peeples said. “So that’s in Studio 5. Studio 5 is in the RTV building. But yeah, it’s a great set and I knew I wanted to utilize something.”

It is moments like these that exhibit the importance of possessing control over your environment as a filmmaker.

“Originally, I was thinking about shooting that scene in Nick’s,” Peeples said. “I thought that we’d have much more control over lighting, sound especially. It would be a lot less complicated If we just threw it in a studio. So that’s why we did that.”

Thus, IU’s Media School and Radio Television Building became critical as a resource that fostered an environment for students to hone their craft and learn valuable skills in the process, as they certainly delivered in this case.

“Especially on that set, I mean we had giant lights,” Peeples said. “On that set in particular, we had lights the size of giant stage lights that were bouncing on the ceiling and everything like that. So the lighting on that scene was incredibly hard to master.”

Peeples accredits IU Media School faculty for providing this opportunity.

“That was the amazing Craig Erpelding, who helped us get that room,” Peeples said. “He knows Jonathan [Zapf] really well also. So, Craig helped us reserve that space for that day. That was probably a four-hour shoot.”

Experiences like these give Peeples a heightened sense of appreciation for on campus locations that served to accommodate and contribute to the production of the film.

“It’s probably one of my favorite buildings on campus,” Peeples said.

In addition to Media School resources, IU’s prominence in the theater and musical arts were also invaluable in the production of the film, as IU theater alumna Matt Rosin, a theater actor currently working in Chicago, stepped in for the role of Professor Black.

“I put up an ad on Backstage. “Student film,” Peeples said. “Usually, I wouldn’t call it a student film. But like for this case, I definitely was like, “Student film. Very rookie.” But you know, because like for me, we didn’t do this for any classes or anything. We just all wanted to do it. Which I loved. I’d much prefer that than turning it in as an assignment.”

It was through Backstage that Peeples found Rosin, who stood out as by far, the most pristine candidate for the role that he was looking for.

“We got a decent number of auditions, and he was just, by far the best,” Peeples said.

Peeples also points to the humor of Rosin’s success in the industry of commercial acting while also playing a key role in his own film.

“[Rosin]’s done some really cool commercials,” Peeples said. “They’ve actually, believe it or not, played one of his commercials up here on that big screen in The Media School. I got a text from someone going, “Bro. Professor Black was on the big screen.” And I was like, “No way!” And my mom will be in Planet Fitness, and she’ll see him on the TV's there in his commercial.”

Looking back in the present, Peeples’ reflects on the great degree of uncertainty that came with the production process.

“So finding some random guy online, and saying, “Hey. Would you be in this movie, having him audition, and you know, getting to the day and just hoping he’d show up, and thank God he did,” Peeples said. “He was amazing. We even got him back for reshoots. Looking back on it, there were so many X factors that could have gone wrong or backfired in our face.”

There was less uncertainty, however, when it came to the casting of costars Zapf, Mercado, and Pattison.

“Well, the director Max Peeples, had seen me in a couple of plays that I did for University Players, here at IU,” Zapf said. “He had also seen me perform in my sketch comedy group,

“Boy in The Bubble”, which is an on campus sketch comedy club, and thought that I might be a good fit. So we did some screen tests with some of the actresses that he had been considering for the female lead of Akimi and things seemed to be a good fit, and eventually he offered me the part, and a year and a half later after some various sporadic shooting, every now and again, whenever people were available during our busy school schedules, we shot an entire feature.”

Mercado, herself, was attracted to the film, as she herself has for a long time been interested in not only acting, but film acting specifically.

“I’ve always liked acting, or just the idea of it,” Mercado said. “In Fifth Grade, they asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I said, “Actress.” So I’ve always loved the idea of it, and I didn’t even really get into film until I was a Senior in high school when I wrote my first script for theater.”

It was then that Mercado discovered her passion for filmmaking.

“I was like, uh, I don’t know if I wanna do it for theater,” Mercado said. “And my friend was like, “Oh. I’m doing film.” And I went, “Wait a second. I think I know what I need to do!” And then I started just really, really getting into it over Covid, like during that time.”

Mercado muses on how she landed herself in the film in the first place.

“Specifically, with Who Murdered Professor Black?, the story’s really funny,” Mercado said. “I was in Max Peeples’s screenwriting class, which is like Screenwriting:101, and we were reading an entire episode of Doctor Who out loud for some reason, and I was reading one of the main characters, and I was just going 100% for no reason, because I thought that would be funny. After class, [Peeples] was like, “Oh my gosh, “Do you act?” And I was like, “Wow. That doesn’t warrant that question. But yes I do. But why?” And he told me about, Who Murdered Professor Black?, and I was supposed to audition for a different role, but then I auditioned for Akimi, and then I got it.”

Mercado was specifically drawn to the role of Akimi Armstrong, a head strong young woman pursuing a criminal justice major, partially due to relating to the character herself.

“I think the character is written to be very witty, and that is, I think, one of my main personality traits, and I think he felt the character out on me,” Mercado said. “Her being witty, smart, and resourceful. I think I have those traits but maybe in a different font, but I can relate to her, especially because I think she grew up Asian and I’m Asian. So that was one thing that [I related to her on] immediately off of the bat. I’m not quite sure on that, but her name is Akimi, so I made that assumption on my own.”

Mercado admits it was also her ability to empathize with Akimi’s dark side that drew her to the character.

“It honestly really drew me to her,” Mercado said. “I was originally supposed to be the sorority girl. That’s what [Max] originally wanted me for because I’m a sorority girl. But it drew me to her, because when I first read the script, like the very, very first version, I was like, “Yeah, of course she killed him.” I, honestly, if I had that bone in me, I think I would do the same thing. He totally screwed her over. What the heck? He made her an orphan. Max went so far. I had a whole character sheet. He even gave me a Malcolm in The Middle episode to watch so I understood her character in depth on what I needed to play. She was so understandable. It was heartbreaking to know her character and her backstory, and even though she ended up being the villain and the murderer, I don’t think she’s the villain or the antagonist. I feel like she’s the anti-hero, because in the end, you’re like, “I really, really liked you.” And you almost are like, cheering for her to get with Nick at the end.”

Mercado, like Zapf and Pattison, also has experience acting in live sketch comedy shows, as all three acted together previously in “Boy in The Bubble.”

“But especially with “Boy in The Bubble”, I’ve already acted with John and Max a ton,” Mercado said. “For at that point, like a year and a half when I got cast. So I knew them really, really well, and I was really close with the both of them, even outside of Bubble. So just getting cast as just being with them, I was like this is going to be so easy, because I’m already really close with you guys and you can say whatever you want to me. Sometimes it was a little funny, because there was a scene where Max had to tell me to “shut the fuck up.” Pardon my french. And I had to look Jon dead in the eyes, and go, “Kiss me.” And I’m like, “Oh my God.” But we’re really close, so I was like, “This is really funny.” And I’m like, “I know this is gonna work out in the long run.””

Zapf also attributes comedy as a key to developing his skills as a performer, and also even as a filmmaker and writer himself.

“My dad put me in classes at The Second City [Comedy] when I was 11,” Zapf said. “So I’ve been writing in some way, shape, or form since then. I wrote plays in high school along with the sketches and came to college and started scripts for short films.”

From there, Zapf developed his writing skills across various forms of the craft.

“I used to work at The Comedy Attic,” Zapf said. “I worked there for almost two years, just bussing tables, and tearing tickets, and that kind of stuff. I was working on a lot of stand up material, and going up for open mics there and in other open mics here in Bloomington, because I’d done a lot of stand up in high school. There’s a lot of variations of writing that I’ve become familiar with.”

Mercado, herself, also attributes stand-up comedy as the key to developing her own skills as a writer and filmmaker.

“That was really beneficial,” Mercado said. “I mean stand up just gives you courage. I, more do it, because I like practicing different writing styles. And it gives me the chance to like, put myself out there.”

Mercado also emphasizes the importance of quickly memorizing lines, a skill she also developed while in “Boy in The Bubble.”

There would be times where I was like, “Max is gonna kill me,” Mercado joked. “I was not fully memorized when I got there. I would be like looking at the script in between. But I kinda do that for Bubble. Especially Jon and Max. We’re all the same. We memorize really quickly. Because I’m someone who memorizes the Saturday of the [Boy in The Bubble] Show. I should not do that anymore. That’s a note to self. So I’m crazy. I normally was pretty memorized when I got there.”

Mercado, also, however, notes the vitality of not only memorizing lines, but presenting herself as the character as being just as critical.

“It was more so how I said those sentences that was the harder part,” Mercado said. “Because there was a very, very specific motion that Max wanted from me the entire time, because I was misleading the audience the entire time. And not only the audience, but I had to mislead Nick the character, and I had to keep that in mind. So I had to be both misleading and mistrusting, while also being like, maybe flirtatious and, like, witty. And that is a really hard line to walk, so I was like, “Okay. I have to figure out how to walk this line.” And I, eventually, would get it, but sometimes that was really hard to do with some of the dialogue, because it was like, “Aw. This is just like a flirty line. I don’t know how to do this in any way other than flirty.” So I would just have to think on it for a while. But eventually after saying it for a thousand times in the mirror, I’d get it.”

Zapf also reverberates the importance of working side by side, in collaboration with a director.

“So, obviously, the general idea of what he wanted Nick to look here, he wanted him to be very logical, very kind of stoic and quiet, very distracted by his work, kind of a nerd within criminal law, to the degree that he was a little bit introverted, a little bit self obsessed,” Zapf said. “That led me to have a very quiet demeanor. What Max wanted most was just kind of a unifying tone. That was the direction he gave me. We kind of played with how Nick would talk, until to him, audially, it sounded like the person he wanted.”

Once Zapf found the range conducive to his character, he was able to further explore the nuances and subtleties of Nick Monroe as he unraveled throughout the story, exhibiting another kind of mystery to unfold in of itself, as the layers of the character were peeled back and revealed in subtle, yet specific ways.

“Once it sounded like the person that he wanted, he pretty much gave me free reign, so long as I kept kind of the same vocal rhythms and limited tonal range that Nick would use, because he wasn’t a very emotive person, except for particular spurts of extreme anger, or more subtle moments of joy and happiness, which were few and far between,” Zapf said.

Zapf also stresses the importance of establishing consistency in a role over a longer period of time.

“It was especially weird coming back after my semester away in LA, last semester, first semester of my Junior year,” Zapf said. “Because we had done principal photography, the main portion of the shooting, the second semester of my Sophomore year, into the Summer in between this semester and the one I was in LA. When I came back at the beginning of this semester, we still had a little bit of shooting to do, and it had been an entire semester and a little bit more, since I had played Nick. And so Max had to send me a bunch of video files, kind of a compilation of Nick throughout the film that he had captured thus far, so I could remember how to act as Nick, because it had been so long. It was definitely a challenge.”

In order to stay sharp and consistent throughout the two year span in which filming took place, Zapf did everything in his power to ensure that Nick Monroe remained genuinely authentic, as one of the ways was through virtue of consistency.

“Eventually it just became somewhat natural to slip into him, because we were filming off and on for over a year and a half,” Zapf said. “And eventually I had to actually listen to recordings of myself, just to remember kind of what I sounded like, and eventually by the end I was probably doing impressions of myself from months prior.”

Zapf also reflects fondly on the sense of nostalgia for a period earlier in his college career, brought about by returning to filming.

“It was kind of comforting because it’s always nice to think about an earlier time when you’re in College,” Zapf said. “It goes by so quickly and it was definitely a little bit nostalgic to come back after this past semester and finish up the part of Nick.”

In summary, Zapf relays his overall methodology, as generally speaking, being quite simple.

“So long as he kept liking what I was doing, I kept doing it,” Zapf said. “Because at the end of the day, I don’t have any formal training. I just kind of take a shot in the dark and if he likes it, I keep doing that same thing.”

Both Mercado and Zapf find the experience in front of the camera as useful preparation for future roles both in front of and behind the camera.

“Being on just a film set, in general, you learn so much,” Mercado said. “But I’ve never been on the acting side at this level before. I’m normally on the other side. Just being able to see how hard they were working, and just like the detail and thought they put into everything was just so inspiring. I will make sure that any project I work on going forward, at least if I’m on the crew side, I’m going to put that amount of detail and hard work into it, because I mean like, the finished product was great. And I would love to produce something, maybe like that one day.”

Zapf’s analysis is similar.

“It helps me as an actor,” Zapf said. “Working as an actor, then communicating with my actors when I’m a director. It helps me to think about more natural dialogue, when I’m, as an actor, thinking, “Oh God. This is really hard to say.” So it’s definitely given me a better perspective into my own filmmaking from the other side of things.”

Mercado concurs.

“And then on the acting side, I think the journey I took was just I made sure I knew my character,” Mercado said. “I knew her so well. I understood why she did what she did. I just made sure, I knew why she did every single thing she did. Whether or not Jon’s character knew why, I didn’t care. It mattered if I knew. Max made me a playlist. I made myself a playlist, depending on the scene. I would listen to it on the way to a shoot. And then I’d be there ready in the mindset that I knew I needed to be in. I think that kind of dedication, I think I need to take that more forward. I guess this journey was just like, when I put 100% into things, look at the final product. It’s telling when you put 100% into everything you do. So I always make sure that I put 100% into everything I do.”

The cast and director also reflect on how the versatility of the IU campus was essential to the plot, both in terms of cinematic visual elements, as well as setting up suspense and interpersonal character dynamics.

“Because of the versatility of locations available to us because of the campus, the different kinds of buildings, the areas they were built in, we were really allowed to find unique spaces that matched the tone of that particular moment in the movie very well,” Zapf said.

This is especially the case with the film’s dramatic, shakespearean climax in which Akimi is revealed as the one who murdered Professor Black, strangling him as revenge for prosecuting her mother for the murder of her abusive stepfather.

As Nick and his partner Roman Rodgers (Pattison) confront her in the stairwell of the Musical Arts Center, she prepares to leap to her death in a dramatic sequence in a which a downward tilted camera shows a steep drop onto the concrete floor below, a fall that would most certainly crush the internal organs of anyone who suffered it.

The scene also offers Monroe a glimpse of redemption after the tragic death of his girlfriend by suicide, who is shown in brief, mysterious flashbacks throughout the duration of the film.

Nick’s heroic gesture also serves to reveal his deep feelings for Akimi in a subtle, yet dramatic manner as he holds her back while waiting for the police to arrive in a somber, yet touching finale.

“It’s indicated that she killed herself,”

Mercado says bluntly in reference to Nick’s deceased girlfriend, before reflecting on the various fates that were in store for her character.

“I did know that I originally might not have been the murderer,” Mercado said. “I knew that was one of the original, original scripts. I did not read that one. I’ve only read scripts where I was the killer. I think Max made the right choice. I think it made it so much deeper. You don’t really see a woman killer very often. And honestly, it wasn’t even in a way that was punching down, like, “Oh my gosh. women don’t feel, or they feel too much.” I thought it was done well, because she deserved to have these emotions. They made Professor Black, honestly the true villain of the story. I mean he was horrible! There were definitely many different endings. And they all were just different types of Akimi’s reactions and how she dealt with getting caught.”

Zapf also touches on the cinematic attributes of The Musical Arts Center, as being somewhat of a hidden gem on the Bloomington campus.

“Max really wanted to involve a lot of campus in the movie, and obviously Breaking Away is a very iconic Bloomington film, but he wanted to involve more of campus,” Zapf said. “Not necessarily showcase certain iconic parts of campus, but more so use it in effective ways that didn’t necessarily look like a college campus. So we found different stairwells that looked like they might be part of a nuclear housing facility in The MAC just to add kind of a tone of suspense to the final climax.”

Peeples gushed on the utility of the Musical Arts Center in the culmination of the crime thriller.

“Yeah, when I went to that set though at the end of the movie, that stairwell is just so cinematic,” Peeples said, while continuing on to offer insight into potential alternatives for the film’s conclusion, as Peeples originally had darker plans in store for Akimi.

“We shot her jumping off,” Peeples said. “Originally how the ending went, there was no argument between them. As soon as he goes, “You did it. Didn’t you. She steps on the railing, she climbs over, and then, they go, “Don’t do it. Don’t do it.” And then she jumps off. And then, it cuts to black.”

After seemingly momentarily forgetting, Peeples excitedly adds another detail.

“And she also had a gun!,” Peeples mused excitedly. “She pulled out a gun, and she was aiming it at them. It was just so, over the top. You know what I mean? The gun hits the ground, it explodes, and then we cut to black, and then we fade into Nick holding her. I don’t know. It was crazy man!”

Peeples also offers insight on how he made such decisions regarding Akimi’s fate, as well as logistical issues that factored in, and how, as a filmmaker, he confronted and dealt with them.

“Originally, Nick was going to hold her,” Peeples said. “When I first wrote it, she was going to jump and die. By the time I got to the end of the script, I was like, “This character feels like my kid. I cannot kill this character.” So he has her. He’s holding this dummy. It’s this giant wide shot of this stairwell. You know what I mean? He’s holding on, and he pulls her over, and Roman comes around and they wrestle her to the ground.”

Peeples also emphasizes that honing the ending took a great deal of effort.

“I don’t even say we wrote it,” Peeples said. “We did film her death actually. We did film her going over. Believe it or not, we did film a dummy, falling down the stairs. I’m telling you there’s so much that we just did for stuff like this. But, it was real crafting, just getting the ending. There were so many things that we filmed that didn’t make it in.”

Peeples also reflects on how his experience changed and challenged his view of storytelling through a visual process, as he himself confronted many challenges that he initially didn’t expect.

“I think that stairwell is amazing,” Peeples said. “This is the first project ever where I’ve had deleted scenes. Originally, when I do all of my projects, I’m like, “Yeah. My script is my final thing. I don’t write deleted scenes.” We had so many scenes that got deleted or reshot, or concepts that didn’t make it into the movie. I have all of the footage from when the murderer kills Professor Black to the point where the body gets dumped. I have that entire story on film. I have, you know, a ton of scenes with Nick and Akimi. You know, there’s a great montage of Nick and Roman that got cut out of the movie.”

In addition to having to cut some of his own scenes, Peeples also relays this is the first film where he ever had coverage, as in scenes shot from multiple angles with lines delivered by characters in the same scene being shot from various angles, a signifier of Peeples’ ascension to next level filmmaking.

Very bizarre and unique way to make a movie,” Peeples said. “But yeah, we glued it all together in the end.”

Peeples also reflects on his surprise at having to reshoot as much footage as he did.

“I didn’t expect to reshoot so much,” Peeples said. “Like, we would come up with a new scene idea like the Winston scene in the bowling alley. Originally that was in the meadows next to Ballantine Hall. We shot it there. The performances were great, but the lighting wasn’t quite right and there were some other things.”

Peeples also relays some of the logistical challenges in making scenes that were based in indoor locations not entirely within his control.

“When we got to the bowling alley [in the Indiana Memorial Union], we rented the bowling alley for like an hour,” Peeples said. “It was important to me to have all of the IU [logos] above the bowling alley stuff, because it is a very IU movie. That scene in particular, there are so many stories like this. We rent it for an hour. So, it hits 6 O’clock. They throw up the lights, because originally it’s all black light or whatever. They turn on the lights. We start lighting. All of the crew runs in and we start lighting scenes. I’m pointing in every direction. I get the actors down. We have to rehearse because you know we haven’t rehearsed the scene. They get there. They have one hour to get there and we shoot the scene and we do it. We shoot it like four times. And then we go. We’re done. That’s all of the time we have. What’s crazy about it is just all of the things that we tried to redo to make it better, and polish and stuff like that. But the behind the scenes stories are just absolutely insane. Like the last act, where they’re in The Jacobs School, that was two seven hour shoot days that it took to get that. And then on top of reshoots, that was another five hour shoot day.”

Peeples speaks proudly of the scenes that were more difficult to shoot from a logistical standpoint, including a scene in which Nick is running through his apartment complex.

“All of the running, it’s almost like five or six different scenes that you just paste together in one giant sequence,” Peeples said.

Peeples reflects on chase scenes, in general, as being a particular type of feather in his hat, so to speak.

“There are a lot of chase scenes,” Peeples said. “I’m very proud. Most of the running shots, like Roman running on the track. That is literally me with my camera. I put a little stabilizer on there, but there’s no like,...”You know, I’m not sitting in a car, or you know, riding a skateboard. That’s just me running with the camera. And I’m really proud of those shots. I’m running backwards, facing him and those shots are so smooth.”

Peeples also makes sure to accredit his crew, who were with him the whole way.

“I think it was about 29 people on the crew,” Peeples said. “Everyone from the audio people to the guy who designed the title of the movie. It’s really not a huge crew, but when you see that credits list, It was enormous, the amount of people who just came in and did a little thing here and there. Mercury players, two audio girls, my assistant director, myself, and then a lighting person. And then on those big seven hour days, you know, a big Professor Black day, we have like five other people there, control bar stuff or whatever.”

In addition to using as many on campus locations as he could, Peeples also even used his own backyard for one particularly important scene in the film, in which a young kid discovers Professor Black’s unseen body in a bag floating gently down a stream, as the child’s scream echoes throughout the wilderness.

“I went to school with his sister. He’s from Indianapolis, same as me. That backyard, that’s actually my backyard. I was like, “Hey. You want to come over to my house and do this scene or whatever. He was great.”

Peeples also not only accredits the faculty and location related resources that were integral to the project’s success, as well as the talents of the cast and crew, but the talents of Jacobs School of Music students as also being well utilized, as The Jacobs School of Music is itself one of the highest ranked musical conservatories in the world.

“That was the split screen, I believe where it’s Roman on one side and Nick on the other side,” Peeples said. “They’re driving cars, and like cutting footage out and doing all of this stuff. I gotta point out the amazing music too that was done by Antonio Rosario in that scene, and Alrc Lubin throughout as well.”

Peeples muses on how obtained the vital Jacob’s connection that was crucial to the film’s musical score.

“I had a Jacobs Professor at one point, and I was like, “Hey. Do you know anyone who’s interested in film scoring, and you know, it seems to me that he just gave me the best students in the school, and Alec is absolutely amazing,” Peeples said. “Antonio’s just as good. But, Alec and I have been working over this past year, doing all of the music for this movie and everything like that. I just basically give them notes and say, “Hey. I don’t like this. I like that.” I’ll say, “Hey. Can we fix this”, or something like that. “Hey. Can we make this sound more dark?” That’s basically the extent of my knowledge. It was probably pretty frustrating for him, because I really couldn’t tell you the difference between a refrain and a melody.”

In summary, Peeples is grateful for the plethora of resources offered to him, as that is also one of the aspects of IU that makes it so special, in his view.

“The Professors have been what have really helped me,” Peeples said. “I was lucky enough to have my acting teacher, a lot of my TV studio professors, and Single Camera instructors come to the premiere. These are people I’ve stayed in contact with, talked to, and worked with, and stuff like. And their support has really helped me a lot. Sometimes the associate instructors.”

Peeples also reveals that Michael Elliot Uslan, IU Media School Professor of Practice and Executive Producer and Originator of The Batman Film Franchise, inspired him to come to IU in the first place.

“In a way, [I came to IU for Michael Uslan]. It was more because we did this week-long course. And you know, he was one of the people who was here. I used to love comic books. I still love comic books. I haven’t got to meet him, but he is definitely someone who inspired me to go to this school for sure.”

Peeples wishes to make Uslan’s acquaintance someday.

“He’s definitely someone who I’d like to meet for sure,” Peeples said.

As the film concludes with an unexpected twist, one could muse that it mirrors another romantic crime drama mystery, the 1989 film Sea of Love, starring Al Pacino alongside Ellen Barkin.

Conclusively, Peeples offers insight into what initially inspired him to create “Who Murdered Professor Black” in the first place.

“So the idea was, there’s two genres I really wanted to play in,” Peeples said. “That was both mystery and noir. The idea was taken from color at the beginning, all happy and fun mystery to a black and white noir at the end.” In preparation for the writing of his own screenplay, Peeples studied a variety of noir films from The Lady from Shanghai to A touch of Evil, as well as The Maltese Falcon, and one of his personal favorites, Nightfall, starring Aldo Ray alongside Anne Bancroft.

It was from that point that Peeples embarked on a carefully planned deep dive into the art of storytelling.

“Everything is very meticulously staged out,” Peeples said. “This is just gonna be me nerding off for a second. You know, as far as that opening scene, the idea for taking the audience through it- it’s like you start with that pan up and you get a view of the whole crew. Then you get to Professor Black, and we do some cinematic language with him, and then the scene starts to bore you a little bit. Starts to slow down. And right as it gets to that pace where you’re almost zoning out a little bit, that’s when you hear “2012, State vs. Montgomery,” and then you sort of perk your ears up a little bit, and you’re like, “What was that.” And then he vomits all over the place, and you’re like, “Oh my God! What the hell is that!?” And you totally forget about what was just said. That’s the idea of taking the audience through that, sort of trying to hide that little piece in there. So that when they remember later, they’re like, “Oh.” Ya know what I mean?”

Conclusively, Zapf reflects on the challenge of playing Monroe as a stoic, dramatic, and complex figure as being what drew him so heavily to the role.

“So, I think that was also an interesting challenge, and that attracted me to the part,” Zapf said. “But again, it was mostly Max and his excitement. I just knew that with someone as excited and driven as him, I had to be a part of that.”

Mercado likewise, became heavily drawn to her character, to the point of even sympathizing with her darkest motivations, while also being grateful for a better fate than initially intended.

“There was never a point where I was like, “Oh. Akimi wouldn’t [jump off of the stairwell],” because the whole scene is about the walls closing in on her and her mom died,” Mercado said. “We don’t know what happened to her real dad. Her stepdad was murdered by her mom. She has no one. She has no family. She’s working to pay for herself to go through college. She just got caught murdering. She’s gonna go to jail. She doesn’t see a brightside, so, of course she’s gonna honestly wanna kill herself. And I know that sounds bad. But like I could understand that narrowing feeling for her. So from Nick’s perspective, there is a budding romance. And whether or not the character knew, it was there. And there’s a whole line about it. Like me going, “I thought we were friends. I thought we were more than friends.” And that kind of, I think, introduces that concept throughout his anger, but it’s in there. And I think that was his chance to finally save the girl, even though he has to make me go to jail.”

Mercado concurs with Monroe's heroism, despite him turning Akimi in.

“I think that’s the better option, because life is better than death,” Mercado said.

Who Murdered Professor Black?: Welcome