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Assistant communication professor Paul Harrill, 34, of Roanoke is new on the scene at Virginia Tech but hardly new on the national filmmaking scene.

In 2001, he won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival for "Gina, An Actress, Age 29."

Harrill has also been accepted into international festivals in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film.

He received his undergraduate degree in film studies from the University of Tennessee and his master of fine arts degree from Temple University in film and media arts. Before he moved to the Raleigh Court area of Roanoke in June -- and began commuting to Virginia Tech -- he taught at Temple.

His latest project, which he has been casting in Roanoke, Blacksburg and Knoxville, Tenn., is a baseball-themed film titled "Quick Feet, Soft Hands." The film is a co-production of Harrill's film company, Lovell Films, and the Independent Television Service with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Harrill is working with cinematographer Tony Corapi of Knoxville and editor Seth Anderson of New York to produce the film and develop its main characters, minor league baseball player Jim and his fiancee, Lisa.

Harrill took time out of his busy schedule to chat at a Blacksburg cafe about his move to the area and the plans for his new film.

Lindsay Key: What inspired the idea for the film's story?

Paul Harrill: I wanted to make a film about baseball where it wasn't a typical sports movie, but one of the lead characters just happened to be a baseball player. I wanted to tell a story that really focuses on the economics of being an athlete, especially a minor league baseball player, an amateur athlete, or a semipro, I guess I should say. In a sense, it's a story about pursuing your dreams and maybe discovering that you aren't going to get to have your dreams realized. I think, in essence, it's a story that a lot of people can relate to, so it's not just about baseball. ... The script will actually have very little on-the-field stuff. It's really much more about off-the-field relationships between the main character, the baseball player, and his fiancee. There is some on-the-field stuff that we will film in a stadium, and they'll have their uniforms on, but it really is more about the relationships than on the field.

LK: Can you walk me through the process of independent filmmaking?

PH: Scripting comes first, and it's the most important part of the process in a way. The script is often compared to a blueprint for a building, and that blueprint might change as you start to build the building. Maybe the sun's coming in and you may want to shift that window over a little bit, but ultimately you need that blueprint, you need the writing from the beginning. The casting process is second and very important. You're essentially creating a world when you make a movie, and casting is when you are populating it. Shooting a movie is a lot of preparation. The funny thing about shooting a movie is that you say "Ooh, I'm a filmmaker. I'm going to be out on the set saying 'Action!' " and all that. But that's the shortest part of the process. For this film, it will be eight days, and you spend more than eight days just casting. Yet it really is when you make that commitment, when you put things on film or on tape. Then, the editing. That's the last major thing. ... For this project, I imagine it will take us about a month.

LK: How do independent films compare to big movie-company productions?

PH: There are virtually as many different ways to make a movie as there are movies. A lot of the movies in the theaters are produced by movie studios, where they oversee every element of the filmmaking process and there's limited creative freedom. One of the things that distinguishes an independent film is the creative control that the filmmaker, the writer and the director have.

LK: What brings you to Roanoke and to Virginia Tech?

PH: Well, I'm originally from the South, from east Tennessee. I was living in Philadelphia, and I really wanted to get back to this part of the country because that's where my stories are set. I was attracted to come to Virginia Tech because of its reputation. I really like the people that I'm going to be working with, and it's a very small film program, so it's an opportunity to develop a film culture here. Part of the promise with independent filmmaking is the promise of being able to tell stories in your own back yard, in your region, and that's really important.