Josh Hamilton loves to tell stories.
But instead of writing them down on paper, he tells his story through a camera lens. His next project: Simpson Residence in the form of a documentary.
“Filmmakers love to tell good stories and Simpson is just one of those stories,” Hamilton said.
The establishment of single sex dorms has seen decline throughout the United States, a unique factor of why Hamilton wanted to capture Simpson.
“All the dorms throughout America are moving to coed,” he said. “I don’t know a single person other than Hillsdale people who live in a one sex dorm. I’ve identified for a long time that there are things that happen in a non-coed dorm that can not happen anywhere else and that’s special.”
The Simpson camaraderie does not just include those who live in it currently.
“It’s a dynasty and we need to record this history,” said senior Spencer Bell, who has lived in the dorm for his entire college career.
Head Resident Assistant Andy Reuss, agrees.
“I think it will help solidify the legacy that was started long before I or the other seniors were here,” Reuss said.
The special quality of Simpson’s dorm dynamic is the initial message that Hamilton said he wanted to convey.
“The deeper message is the relationships and the kind of things that happen between individuals,” Hamilton said. “We’re a fervent band of brothers.”
Instead of focusing on the college as a whole and purely focusing on Simpson, Hamilton takes inspiration for his conveying his message from the way filmmakers have been communicating for years.
“All the great filmmakers throughout time have always had a way of taking a very specific, very mundane thing and then expound on that and give it a whole lot of depth. So in other words, the bigger your message is, the smaller the subject should be,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said that his “Aha!” moment for making the documentary took place in his suite mate’s room while playing X-box.
“It just sort of dawned on me that it would be a hilarious sitcom,” he said. “If I could just make a TV show and it was just a couple a couple guys doing the crazy stuff they do in a dorm that would be great. That developed in my mind and I was just like why don’t I actually capture what happens.”
Hamilton plans to start the documentary filming with homecoming.
“The first big event for every school is homecoming and that is where this starts off. Then I’m just going to carry it all through the year,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton hopes to have Facebook and Twitter accounts up and running for the film soon. He wants a strong social media campaign to get the word out.
“The other thing is that we will be doing is an IndieGoGo campaign and that will be starting Friday. So if people want to see the film, if they want to help it, a donation of $1 helps so much because it helps us get the equipment and some of the stuff that we need to make it really good,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton wants to get stabilizers and potentially another lens to aid in the creation of his documentary.
Reuss is excited for what the documentary could mean for the future of Simpson.
“It will showcase some of the highlights, the aspects of the dorm that make it more than simply brick and mortar,” Ruess said. “My only question is why haven’t we done it before?”