When sophomore Andrew Fazekas arrived at Duke as a freshman in the summer of 2001, he attended a documentary shoot and discovered a passion for filming and directing. Meanwhile, his older brother Chris chose a different path - Duke Law.
Despite their differences, the two brothers have combined their talents to produce a film documenting the law school experience.
Chris heard the idea from his friend and classmate, Terry Tucker - now a second-year law student - shortly after they met in the first year of law school.
"There was a real need to capture what law school is about," Chris pointed out. "Nobody has really accurately represented the reality of law school."
As a first-year law student, Chris drew up contracts and took responsibility for other legal situations that the production encountered. He liked taking advantage of an opportunity to hone his understanding of how businesses work and the way projects develop.
"Understanding the dynamic of the way things play out in reality is different from understanding what it looks like in the classroom," he said.
In a few months, Andrew moved from being a standard assistant to directing the entire production process. Tucker looked on with awe.
"Immediately, you can tell that Andrew was meant to direct movies," he recalled. "Filming is complicated because it's not just about the shooting. He was like The Matrix in a sense, where he could come and just see it and make sure the picture was right."
Last summer, Andrew sorted through 110 hours of the documentary footage during daily 12-hour work shifts in a single-room apartment in Atlanta, Georgia.
Some television networks have viewed that footage and want to buy the film unedited. However, Tucker said, releasing the film could be detrimental to the future careers of some law students.
"There's a lot of things we have on tape that would prohibit them from practicing law, career-altering stuff," Tucker said. "We have to determine whether we want to release the documentary as is and ruin their careers, or do we come back and do something else? Do we not release it and lose the millions of dollars we invested in it?"
Chris thought of making an alternative feature film and changing the characters around, but Tucker said they have not yet decided what to do. "Our primary goal is to have a week-long special of it on HBO," he added.
While Andrew continues to edit the documentary, he has since immersed himself in other various filming projects ranging from commercials to wedding videos to a 30-minute pilot for a television news show. And Chris has almost always been beside his brother, overseeing the legal matters of each project, giving advice and completing consent forms and contracts.
Andrew admitted that having Chris on his side has certainly helped. "Basically, he protects me from any legal concerns so I don't have to worry about that."
The help flows both ways, though. When Chris needs professional brochures or posters for a law school presentation, he turns to Andrew, who established a web and graphic design company in January of last year. And if Chris wants to take his wife out on a weekend night, Andrew occasionally baby-sits.
Although the brothers are heading down separate career paths, Chris says they are not that different. "I don't think of myself as my brother's opposite," he said. "I think we still have a lot in common; we are brothers, after all. We tend to be relatively competitive. And we're always trying to improve ourselves in whatever we're doing."
Next year, Andrew plans to spend the spring semester studying abroad at University of Southern California before graduating early from Duke. His brother also graduated in three years, from the University of Virginia.
Chris currently serves on two journals and works as a research assistant for a Duke law professor - together, a substantial amount of work. While studying to obtain both his master's degree in International Law and his J.D., Chris has also helped to found the Business Law Society.
How do they do it all?
"If you do what you love, you're not going to get tired of it," Chris said. "And that's the truth."
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