Photos courtesy of Adam Frazier

From left: Andy Jackson, Tim Grant, Joe Davidson and Shea Sizemore get ready for the next scene. Below: Adam Frazier’s character, Aubrey, recovers from a beating.

Summer break for a college student can be spent in varying ways.

Some students will stay on campus, studying diligently for summer classes in order to graduate early… or on time.

Others will return to their hometowns to work part-time jobs or, in some cases, find permanent employment.

Then, of course, there are the interns, who volunteer their hours away to gain course credit and job experience.

I work a part-time job, and I’m also a member of the meek, yet assertive, summer-intern faction.

Most of my summer was gone before I had a chance to miss it, and as if there wasn’t enough lack of sleep already, the rest of my free time went into writing, and co-producing a feature film.

It started before graduation, having nightly conversations with friend (and now roommate) Shea Sizemore, who is majoring in media production and minoring in cinematic arts at RU.

We began sketching out a story — characters, a plot — the things necessary for a film.

This project became “My Serpentine,” a story of ordinary people put in extraordinary situations, which is being developed under Shea’s production company, Speaking to the Dead.

Through random chance, Shea and I moved in together — which is ultimately how I got wrapped up in all of this. Being knighted an official producer, I had a lot of responsibilities and tasks ahead of me.

Scouting locations, including going into the depths of West Virginia in search of an old, abandoned mental hospital — as well as several tours through various decrepit schools in Southwest Virginia — was just the beginning.

Then there were casting auditions, putting together a shooting schedule, revising scripts and trying to organize an entire cast and crew to meet at one place at one time.

Once shooting started, sleep went out the window. Wake up early, shoot for 11 hours (on my day off from my other two jobs), go to sleep for two hours, get back up and do it again.

It was draining, but exhilarating at the same time.

As if keeping up with all the normal responsibilities wasn’t enough, I also played a part in the film.

As luxurious as it sounds, playing a guy who owes money to the wrong people and gets beaten to a pulp with a lead pipe is not all it’s cut out to be.

I spent a day of shooting covered in fake blood and special-effects makeup — lying face down on the ancient floor of a Giles County school.

Shooting finally wrapped, and we moved to postproduction — a stage we are still in as Shea is in Asheville, N.C., editing the film with our director of photography Tim Grant and sound engineer Andy Jackson.

The soundtrack is being mixed by “My Serpentine” actors and music gurus James W. Gray III and Jeremy Jackson, while a trailer is out on our official blog, www.myserpentine.blogspot.com.

It will be amazing to see the finished product and look back on all the hard work that went into the film from various parties. “My Serpentine” will premiere at Radford University’s Hurlburt Auditorium in September.

Until then, I’m looking to take a break from my role as producer for the few precious days of summer remaining.

Adam Frazier — who, as we all know, doesn’t wear pants — graduated from Radford University in the spring and recently wrapped up an internship at The Roanoke Times.