Mass media professor Dr. Jim Dufek has played a pivotal role in getting Southeast Missouri State University students opportunities to be involved in films that come to Cape Girardeau.

Dufek worked with the production staff of "Killshot," feature film that came to Cape Girardeau in 2008 and helped find internships for 27 students during the shooting of the movie.

Dufek is constantly working to find job opportunities for Southeast students, including on the feature film "Gone Girl," which is based on the novel by Gillian Flynn and is being speculated to have multiple scenes shot in Cape Girardeau.

Q: Since there have been casting calls, is it safe to say that there is going to be a movie, "Gone Girl," filmed in Cape Girardeau?

A: It has not been officially and formally announced that there is going to be a film made in Cape Girardeau. Everything that is happening right now points to the fact that there is going to be a movie, or part of the movie made here, but neither 20th Century Fox or the producers have officially or formally announced that, and that's the official word by everybody that Cape is under consideration for this. That's the word that I get from everybody I've talked to, but all signs point to this, and it's a positive thing to be here but officially no confirmation.

Q: Did the people involved with the film contact you, or did you contact them?

A: I have a lot of contacts around the state. I'm on the Missouri Motion Media Association Board of Directors and have been for several years, which supports any kind of filmmaking or storytelling whether it's film or television, and we support the film office. Because of that, when the film office was contacted by 20th Century Fox and the producers of "Gone Girl" the film coordinator gave them my name. They contacted me by the end of July and asked if I could help them.

Q: A few years ago the movie "Killshot" was filmed here. Did you have any part of helping with that?

A: Yeah. I helped with the location survey when the producers and the director John Madden came into town. Chuck Martin, who is the director of "The Convention" and "Visitor's Bureau," called and asked if I could help with location scouting. So for quite some time we drove around the director and the producers all over the community. We went over to Illinois and looked at some sites and made a great relationship with them by being able to do that. In the conversations that we had we were able to create internship positions. We had 27 interns placed on the film, which was fantastic. Fred Jones and I collectively got the students involved in that, and we've had some that, from those contacts, are still in the Los Angeles/ Hollywood area working in the business.

Q: Are these the only film opportunities that you've had the chance to work for?

A: In Cape, no. We had a TV series. You've heard of Dick Wolf and "Law & Order." He did a syndicated series about 10 years ago that came to town, and we shot five episodes of that here over about a month's time. So I worked with them on a variety of positions and made contacts with some of those producers and people and kept in touch with them and have been able to keep that going over several years. So it's not the only one I've ever worked on, no.

Q: There was a casting call held in Rose Theatre. Can you explain what exactly happened during the casting?

A: The casting director went through the list of people that she needs to fill the spots. They have been to Kansas City and St. Louis to fill spots. I've read that they've done some work in Los Angeles, and they've looked at people in that area for major roles. You go from the principal characters to the major roles to the bit parts to the extras, and there's more in between that, but there's a line of succession. We put a release out to the community asking anybody if they would like to participate. I put out one email to various radio, TV and print publications, and that's all it took. Just one. It filtered out through Facebook, through Twitter and through news. The casting director thought that she would get about 300, and I said, 'No. We'll get a thousand.' I thought maybe 1,100.

We stopped counting at 1,400 because it was a tremendous success to the point where the casting personnel were thrilled that we had this much enthusiasm in this area to support this film, which says a lot about our community, I think, that they want to get involved and they want to help. Everybody wants to be involved in some sort of capacity with this type of franchise, and I think that this is a great avenue to bring people together to do this.

We saw every kind of person -- small, big, large, white, green, I mean everybody was here. They were patient. Some had to wait over two hours because the auditorium was filled through the lobby, out the hall, outside, around the corner. It was intense. We finally had to cut it off after 4 o'clock because we still had an auditorium full of people, and there were people knocking on the door at 5 o'clock and the casting director said that we have plenty to fill. She, the casting director, within the process of taking a head shot, because all it was was taking a head shot, because you're extras. All you are is background. She would see somebody, and she would pull them out and say 'Come over here, and let's do a little animation, let's do a little characterization,' and she would make notes. She wouldn't give them any false hope by saying this is going to work for you. She would make notes, and then I think they went back and went through all of the process. It was a full day. I had eight students that volunteered to help, three full-time staff and we had DPS here. It was a full day I know I was here 12 hours.

Q: Aside from finishing casting, what is the next step?

A: Well, right now we've already been informed that some of our students in the TV/Film area have already been hired to serve as production assistants or PAs. I've already got some information on that. Fred Jones and I are trying to help coordinate that with the production personnel to let them know that we have people. It's a full-time gig.

They don't want any part-time, they want full time. Full time is 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week for the whole shooting. No days off, no 'I have to go to class,' no they don't want that. They want someone full time. Fred and I have sent out information to our alums to inform them of this opportunity, and if they're working someplace where maybe they can take a leave and come back. If they don't fill the positions here, then they will pull them in from the city of St. Louis because those people do that full-time freelance.

Our next step is to, when we finish up casting, I've already talked to the art department, and we've offered our services to as many as we can help. We've got people in the business all over, and we just want to get our students involved in this. That is the total motivation. That's it. That's what keeps me going for this because if we get our students involved it could create a long-term career path.