Images: webelo 2 – via imdb
What started as a project for his internship at the West Chester Parks and Recreation Department became something much bigger when Casey Costigan, West Chester University senior, decided to transform his rather mundane assignment into a movie: “Webelo (The West Chester Movie).”
Costigan is in his final semester as a Media and Culture major and is graduating in December. He recently was assigned a project by his internship at the West Chester Parks and Recreation Department, where he was originally instructed to conduct a series of interviews around the borough to highlight the history of West Chester. He then came up with the idea to transform the project into a fictional movie after drawing inspiration from the film made about his own hometown coming January 2025: “Delco: The Movie.” Costigan stated that he also wanted to make the assignment in the form of a movie in order to “make it a little more digestible.”
The film depicts the comedic duo of two historians that are trying to save the Farmers and Mechanics building from being torn down and replaced by a chain fast-food restaurant. Costigan hopes “that people take something from it, like the history of West Chester and its importance…also just to look at the message of the film…we have all these historical buildings and monuments and it’s good to respect them…instead of just uploading that history to the internet and then tearing the building down.”
The premiere of the film is planned for Nov. 23, with the location of the event to be determined. There will be posters and advertising around the borough, so keep an eye out in November —all are welcome to come to the showing and demonstrate their support! The acting process of this film is described by Costigan as “one of the tougher roles” he’s played, but the filming process has overall gone very well, as he enjoys playing his character of the intense and comical historian, Elia.
Costigan has always had a passion for filmmaking — as a kid he would run around with a video camera at family functions just filming whatever he could. He began his filmmaking journey after writing a book in high school where his friend suggested he should make it into a movie; “I invested about two thousand dollars into my first film when I was 17 or 18.. and it got premiered at a library and it was awful.” Since then, he has produced close to 30 films over the past seven years, and in 2021, he started his own production company, Costigan Pictures. It is clear he has come a long way from his high school productions.
Following graduation, Costigan plans to continue in the filmmaking field and even has some more films he is planning, including a potential superhero film as well as a faith-based film. To new and aspiring filmmakers, he advises to “connect with more local filmmakers…and keep pursuing, because a lot of people will have an idea but won’t want to go through with it.”
Grace Powell, second-year Media and Culture major with a minor in Journalism. gp1019074@wcupa.edu