Facility Zero
When a distracted office worker finds himself on a mission across an unfamiliar world, he must attempt to find his way back to reality and the monotonous job he left behind.
Director: Liam Edel
Actors: Ren Gunning, Charlie Schmelzer, Keif Oss
Crew: Carter Dusing, Cody Olson, Emmett
Riemenschneider, Zenon Smolarek
12/14/25
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Facility Zero began as an idea stemming from a youtube series Liam Edel did with his friend in high school where they photographed liminal spaces around the twin cities. After meeting with UW Stout’s head of facilities, Zenon Smolarek, the abandoned pool and maintenance halls underneath the art building were now open to be used as sets. The decision was also made to have returning actor Ren Gunning play the lead.
Once the rough draft of the script was completed a worry that the team had was the lack of character interaction and dialogue. Most of the speaking is from the main character talking to himself which seemed to cause the story to move a bit slower than most audiences would probably like. Seeing that adding more unnecessary characters into the film would take away the isolated and liminal feel from the film they ruled that they would sacrifice a fast moving story for a more atmospheric eery screenplay.
With great camera work from director of photography Carter Dusing, Facility Zero was able to have a more cinematic look than their previous short film The Snail. While still flawed in many aspects, Facility Zero was the group’s first look at trying to conduct a larger vision with a high demand on preproduction.