When
Professional
Writing students, Logan
Stark, Lexi Dakin, and
Rebecca Zantjer, met
in their Introduction
to Multi-Media course
(WRA 225) in Fall 2012,
they could have never anticipated what was to come less
than a year later: their own
documentary film receiving
national attention.
After working together Fall
semester, the three decided
to take Advanced Multi-Media
(WRA 425) in Spring 2013.
They needed a project to
work on for the entire semester, and after Logan showed
them a short film he produced
a year earlier, they were inspired to take the story further.
Rebecca says, “When Logan
showed us the video of a fellow soldier who had been
shot in the head [in Afghanistan] and survived, Lexi and I
said, ‘Logan, this is an incred-
ible story, we should go with
this.’”
Logan explains, “At that point
in my life, I wasn’t really telling a lot of people about my
past. But then, finally becoming comfortable with Lexi and
Rebecca, I told them about it.
That’s when we became passionate about the project and
really started getting into it.”
Logan served as a U.S. Marine
in Sangin, Afghanistan, starting in 2010. His battalion suffered the highest casualty rate
of any in the Marine Corps,
losing 25 comrades. Logan,
Lexi, and Rebecca’s film, For
the 25, named in honor of
those 25 fallen soldiers, tells
the story through interviews
and war footage.
owe much of their success to
their professor, Dr. Bump Halbritter. Logan says, “He knows
how to get the best work out
of his students by mixing instruction with freedom. He
truly helped us shape what
this turned out to be.”
Rebecca adds, “Taking the
class within the College of
Arts and Letters was crucial.
It isn’t a journalism project
and it isn’t a multi-media project, it’s writing. It’s a story.”
Logan says he has found his
place at Michigan State University and in the Professional Writing program. He
explains that he has always
been a Spartan,
A class project turned into so
much more, Logan explains,
“Having the opportunity to
take WRA 425 was everything. [For the 25] definitely
wouldn’t have turned out the
way it did without it.”
“When I got out of the military, I had the opportunity
to go to college wherever I
wanted. I was always a Michigan State fan growing up.
To have the opportunity to
come here and use the GI Bill
to get my education was kind
of a no-brainer.”
The team explains that they
As for choosing Profession-
al Writing, Logan explains,
“What I love about Professional Writing is it’s kind of
an in-betweener, a cover-all
major. When you go to apply
for a job, they may not know
what your degree program
was, but Professional Writing
is adaptable. It’s a communication degree.”
After being on YouTube for
only 3 months, For the 25 has
reached over 41,000 views.
The film has been featured on
WKAR TV Current State program, has had attention from
the New York Times, USA
Today, and PBS, and been
screened in Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) hospitals across the country.
Logan says, “I’ve been getting calls and messages saying, ‘I haven’t talked to so and
so for a long time, and he’s
calling me; we’re reconnecting.’” He continues, “Bringing
people together was a major
goal that Lexi, Rebecca, and I
set from the beginning.”
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