On a boardwalk in Florida, Alex Di Marco stumbled upon a homeless-looking man who sat with a ukulele next to his golden retriever, an empty bucket separating them from a gathering crowd.After the man began to play, a spectator held out a dollar bill and the dog responded immediately by running up, taking the money in his mouth and dropping it into the bucket, which moved many more people, Di Marco included, to reach into their pockets as the sun set in the distance.While this description may sound like scene from a movie, for Di Marco, it inspired an entire film entitled “Pretty Little Things,” which could potentially become the first ever feature-length film created entirely by Point Park University students, if it begins production this June as expected. “With this guy and his dog, you could just see the teamwork and the companionship,” said Di Marco, a junior cinema and digital arts major. “Think of the story behind that, like what they do at night when no one’s around, how they hang out … That immediately sparked it … I’ve never been more proud of anything I’ve ever written.” “Pretty Little Things” tells the story of Tommy Fulmer, a successful stand-up comedian with a beautiful wife and daughter. Almost directly after finally acquiring his “dream job,” he receives instead a 10-year prison sentence for possession of narcotics.  The film then fast-forwards to the day of his release as he attempts to reassemble what is left of his life.Homeless and downtrodden, Fulmer turns to drinking and sleeping alone in alleys until he befriends a golden retriever that shares a similar lifestyle. According to Di Marco, “he starts taking care of the dog, and by doing so, he starts taking care of himself.” However, the stakes are raised after the dog is injured and Fulmer is given one month to come up with the $5,000 veterinarian fee or will have no choice but to give his only companion to a shelter. So, he joins a comedy competition that has the potential to recover his financial situation and to revive his dream of “making it.”Di Marco, who has worked on set for music videos for rap artist Wiz Khalifa and local up-and-coming artist Kellee Maize, believes that in-class instruction “can only teach so much.””I’ve always felt like the program says to do what you can, get better, learn what we’re teaching you and then go off and work on sets, but that’s where I differ,” Di Marco said Friday in the Student Production Services (SPS) office in the Patterson Building. “I don’t want to go off and work for other people … It’s not about the road you take. It’s about the road you make.” With “Pretty Little Things,” Di Marco believes that although the road he is making is a “blind path,” seeing as a feature film has never been created by Point Park students before, the level of motivation he sees in the crew members is so strong that “it’s hard to describe.””You can tell in people’s eyes when they want to make something of themselves,” Di Marco said.The project is currently raising funds through the website kickstarter.com, where they will have to reach their minimum goal of $8,000 by May 31 or none of the pledged donations will be collected. For a feature film, this would typically be considered a small budget, but Di Marco believes it will be adequate, because a lot of the filming tools and equipment are readily available.”If being a college student teaches you one thing, it’s resourcefulness. We’re all poor,” DiMarco said with a laugh.Frank Paladino, a junior cinema and digital arts major, is the film’s cinematographer, the crew member responsible for tasks such as “operating and moving the camera, choosing which lens to use for the shot and deciding how much light or shadow [they] need on the character’s face.””Alex Di Marco has always talked to me about how he wants to shoot a feature film … Before I knew it, I had a 100-plus page script in my hands,” Paladino said via email. “I’ve worked with Alex [Di Marco] on numerous films and projects here at Point Park … and he somehow has this ability to convince me that no matter how elaborate his ideas are, they will work.  So I shoot them, and he has never let me down.”Sophomore cinema and digital arts major Cory Stoken is one of the producers working on the project. Producers handle all of the practical elements that go into the making of a film, like budgeting, scheduling and alerting the cast and crew of anything that they need to be aware of.Stoken stressed that support from fans, not only financial, but interest-based as well, is crucial for the success of “Pretty Little Things.” He said that even something as simple as “liking” the film’s Facebook page could be helpful when applying for film festivals down the road. “Major motion pictures like [The Dark Knight Rises] that come into Pittsburgh are great and we get a handful of those every year,” Stoken said Saturday from the SPS office in the University Center. “But I think what’s more important are the independent films that are shooting, because there are so many more of them. Whether they’re student films or small video productions … hopefully people will really start to support all kinds of films, not just the major Hollywood pictures.”More information on the film can be found at www.prettylittlethingsthemovie.com.