BY BRYAN CAMPBELL

AND GENA CABRERA

MEDIA WRITING REPORTERS

With varied accents, a non-traditional setting and a vast number of puns, All in Love goes all in for love with a poker-themed romantic comedy.

The FilmFest entry directed by Isabel Gallegos, liberal studies major from San Antonio, and produced by Josh Hervey, theater tech and design major from Abilene, puts their own spin on romantic comedies

“The movie is about some guy who has been dealing with poker addiction all his life and he loses everything until this one girl comes into his life and he decides to go all in for love,” Gallegos said.

This team took a unique approach on love compared to the typical storyline of a Hallmark movie, feeling the need to stray from the norm and lean into the unexpected.

The team was inspired by an idea of mixing together lots of comedy with lots of randomness. Writer Caleb Myers, digital entertainment and technology major from Cedar Park, said, “I really have no idea where the actual premise came from, of it being a love story set at a poker table.”

The team felt driven to run with this random idea.

This film revolves around the love story between the two main characters. The unnamed male character grew up in a family of poker players and later finds himself at the table playing his own game now.

This character is played by Ryan Chu, musical theater performance major from Austin, who said, “because his father always taught him how to play poker he was also always trained that everything he gained was because of risk. And so with him finally being in the dumps, with this girl coming into his life it shows that even though he’s lost everything in gambling he didn’t lose everything.”

Chu meets the other main character, Echo, played by Layla Rorem, at a speakeasy where they fall in love.

While having a limited budget and small crew is a tough obstacle most Filmfest teams face, this team mainly struggled with their set and the weather.

Rorem, a theater performance major from Plano, said the cold weather and stylish costumes did not mix well in mid-January evenings. Additionally, the set had one main problem, a random metal pole around which the team had to hide and film.

This team came out of the experience stronger in its understanding of the pre-production process. Team members discussed how a lot of planning in pre-production enabled the actual production process to run smoothly.

The team also grew in managing their diversity of opinions about sets, characters, execution and now hopes that growth pays off with the FilmFest awards for best producing and best editing.

Crew/cast: Josh Hervey, producer; Isabel Gallegos, director; Ky McLeod, writer; Caleb Myers, writer, actor; Ryan Chu, actor; Layla Rorem, actor.