Summer is a season for taking in some sun, cooking outside, laying on the beach and for some, making a film.

This summer, student filmmaker Chris Lukeman gets behind the camera again with a project that promises plenty of bite. The alumnus behind 2005’s “University of Illinois Versus A Mummy” is taking on a story about a homeless superhero who may be getting a lesson from Abraham Lincoln himself – in vampire form.

“I tried to think of a superhero story that hasn’t been done yet or hasn’t been done often, and one that we could do without special effects, without needing people to jump from tall buildings or duck fireballs or fly around on green screen,” Lukeman said. “We wanted to avoid all that and keep it very simple.”

The story is set up in the form of a 30-40 minute episode of an ongoing series. This is one of many projects that the student organization Illini Film and Video is lending a hand to this summer. The organization does not manage many film projects but provides equipment for students to check out as well as a group to network through. Lukeman and Illini Film and Video secretary Anne Shivers insist that vampire Abraham Lincoln is only one element of the film.

“It’s not about vampire Abraham Lincoln,” said Shivers, junior in LAS.

“That is the most defining part,” said incoming Illini Film and Video president and senior in Engineering Joey Burgess. “Do you want to talk about how the zombie bites a vampire and turns it into a zompire?”

Instead, the as-yet untitled film focuses more thoroughly on the homeless superhero and the world he lives in.

“Our homeless superhero really toes the line between whether he’s an actual good-doing force or whether he’s just totally out there, insane, beating the crap out of the people who are only marginally better than the people he’s saving,” Lukeman said.

The fact that the superhero is homeless may do something to humanize him.

“It’s like what a superhero would be in a non-superhero universe,” Shivers said. “It’s like Bruce Wayne without all the money – some dude just living out on the street, kind of crazy.”

Nevertheless, the subject of vampire Abraham Lincoln continued to come up throughout a script meeting on Thursday. While Lukeman seemed slightly irritated that many people latched on to that one detail, he said it makes him feel like the film will be well-received. He stressed that the character will be treated with respect. Many of his lines in the film are actual quotations from Lincoln.

“Very shortly I’m going to be talking to professional Abraham Lincoln re-enactors … there are about 15 or so in Illinois and hopefully I can find one with a good sense of humor,” Lukeman said.

The character is one comedic twist in a film that will most prominently be rooted in 1980s action. Lincoln will seek his third term in office despite his vampiric tendencies.

“He’s very much more Abraham Lincoln than he is a vampire,” Shivers said.

The project is set to begin filming in mid-July and will finish production in early August.

“Our schedule is totally packed from this point on,” Shivers said. “We have four days to do location scouting and a certain amount of days to make sure our casting is in order and we start production on a certain day and we have to be done by a certain day.”

Lukeman and Shivers agreed that this project is more organized and will be running on a tighter schedule than “University of Illinois Versus A Mummy.”

“(From ‘Mummy’) I learned the importance of scheduling and really doing the pre-production end of things, which is why we’re trying to be a lot more organized on this end,” Lukeman said.

The “Mummy” production went on for a year and a half, whereas the new project will only be in production for a couple of weeks.

“For me this is kind of my last hurrah filming in Champaign, trying to use the lessons learned from ‘Mummy’ and trying to come up with something with a higher production value,” Lukeman said.

Illini Film and Video was formed in 2000 and welcomes students of all experience levels.

“Every year that we’re doing this we’re getting better. I think for at least the last two years we’ve been getting better at how we’ve been doing this so we don’t have to focus on the bureaucratic, logistical aspects and more on the more fun aspects: making movies,” Burgess said.

Filming in the summer may make getting locations less complicated. Shivers said getting permission to film the University can be difficult, although this project’s production will be filming more off campus.

“As far as locations go, I think we’re going to find a lot more people receptive to listening to us, just because they’re not bombarded with big issues of the school year and 40,000 extra people being here,” Shivers said.

Lukeman said he wants the film to be a nonstop thrill ride.

“The film is in theory going to be very, very fast-paced, so the audience doesn’t know what’s going on and the vampire Lincoln thing is a very small part of that story, yet one of the most fun parts,” he said.

If you’d like to be part of the magic, Illini Film and Video is seeking extras, crew members, production assistants and financiers. E-mail [email protected] for more information.