USC graduate Jake Clancy and his cast premiered The Classless Election of Middlebridge High at Columbia’s Nickelodeon theater after more than a year of filming and script improvisation.

The director said the film is a “mockumentary” of a class president election, including six characters who embody infamous, high school stereotypes.

Characters include a jock, a nerd, an entrepreneur, a military brat, a girl from a powerful and rich family and the ultimate election winner, the drug user.

Clancy’s inspiration for the 90-minute film came from his issues with the high school education system, he said.

“I’ve always had gripes with the public school system here in the United States of America – how it could be better,” said Clancy, who’s now 23. “And I wanted to challenge myself with a feature film to do before I graduate(d).”

The film is based on a high school news crew following each of the six characters throughout their journey and their submitted campaign videos for class presidency. 

Shooting took place from September 2024 to spring 2025 on the University of South Carolina’s campus, including the recreational tennis courts, Blatt Field and the Kennedy Greenhouse Studio. 

Sophomore broadcast journalism student Eliza Bain, who plays news anchor Nancy Davis, said leaning into the plot was entertaining, as she said she didn’t enjoy her high school experience. 

“It was a little therapeutic to be able to poke fun at that and be like, ‘Oh, OK, I’m not crazy, yeah, high school actually sucks sometimes,” Bain said. 

Bain only knew two other cast members at the start of filming. It’s her first feature film. But her nerves were minimal because the entire cast was very welcoming, she said.

“The cast was so great, supportive and nice,” Bain said. “And Jake (Clancy) really made an effort to also make sure I was comfortable and doing OK. Everybody was just really, really friendly. I really got to know a lot of awesome people.”

The first campaign filmed shows Bryce Stambaugh, who plays as Hank “The Tank” Fallon. He portrays his jock character, throwing a football around, kicking a soccer ball around a field and lifting weights. 

All other characters followed suit in their campaign portions, playing into their stereotype. 

USC graduate Adams Keefer, who plays Chester Taylor, previously worked with Clancy under Student Gamecock Television’s film component, 1080c Productions. His job this time around also was on the production team for the film, scheduling shoots and thinking of ways to raise money for their budget.

Keefer played as the nerd in the film, altering his voice to a higher pitch. He said embodying a character’s expressions is the most difficult part of acting.

“You read your lines and say, ‘OK, this is what I have to do,’ but there’s everything in between your lines where you need to make sure you have the same physicality that your character would,” Keefer said. “And that’s the hardest part, because you can easily forget to hold yourself in the posture your character would, or make the facial expressions your character would, just because you do posture and facial expressions so naturally.”

Keefer said embracing a character’s personality is also just as important as knowing the lines.

“This time, I really tried to think, ‘Why is my character doing this? What do they want?’” Keefer said. “And I think it really helped me just bring the character to life more.” 

Senior theater student Morgan Passley plays Marrisa Howard. She has been in numerous student films and worked as a background character for professional sets. She also said embodying the character is important for further understanding by the viewer, as she referred to Howard in the third person.

“I’m given whatever is given to me in the character description, and then I take that, and I’m able to imagine her life before the script and after the script,” Passley said. “Acting is reacting, you know, so getting into my characters, I take what is given to me, and I expand on that.” 

By the end of the film, Aaron Jacobs, who plays drug user Nathan “Nollie” Oliver, wins the class president debate by default after Stambaugh’s and Keefer’s characters fight and eliminate themselves from contention.

Clancy, the production team and the cast members hosted a discussion panel after the film for viewers to ask questions and learn clarifying details about the origins of the film, like how the cast came together. 

Clancy said he’s submitting the film to multiple film contests, particularly in South Carolina and the New England area. Clancy was born in South Carolina, moved to Hong Kong, then New England, and returned to South Carolina to attend USC. He majored in marketing, with minors in media arts and Mandarin.

To watch the film, click here.