"Peanuts," says the man behind the camera monitor.

The cinematographer wanted a snack. One of his newest recruits, Ricky Dean Monsey, leaps into action and brings him the peanuts.

"Ricky thinks ahead," Yiannis Samaras, the cinematographer, says. "And he's hungry to learn"

Samaras, whose credits include "Daddy Day Care" and "Nip/Tuck," also does lighting design and photography alongside cinematography. Quickly walking down the hall to set up for the next scene, Samaras says one of the best things about Monsey is he knows how to be "invisible but productive" on a crowded set. Monsey is "right on spot," he says, and at the same time "fun and full of energy."

Monsey, a third-year student at UAF, is helping the crew film "Chronic Town." Based on an original screenplay, the film is a dark comedy about a part-time cab driver named Michael and his unique group of friends in Fairbanks.

A green haze fills the air while the crew eats bread and pizza for lunch in the cafeteria at the senior care home. Laughs are heard throughout the three tables every few minutes.

Monsey says the filming today had been mostly serious scenes and although the others helping around the scene aren't all actors they have to be on "low mood," keeping the conversation down and being serious around the set. The purpose of this is to keep the mood right for the crew to achieve the degree of seriousness needed for the shot.

Paul Gonsoulin, the film's first camera assistant, says Monsey "is easy to work with."

"Right now Ricky thinks he is an assistant but probably by next week he'll think he's a producer," jokes director Tom Hines, who is directing his first movie after having minor acting roles in movies including both "Princess Diaries" flicks.

Monsey got involved in the film after spotting flyers posted around campus looking for "gumps," people to help with the small things while filming. Monsey says 40 people showed up to help, but when they found out that only a few would be chosen, only nine returned for the final decision.

Monsey couldn't believe students interested in filmmaking wouldn't come back for the opportunity to be gumps, instead signing up for class. He says most of learning film comes from real-life experience.

Monsey was soon helping with the film about 13 hours a day without pay. This included weekends, until they were finished. Monsey says it's tiring work but well worth it. Everyone has to start somewhere.

After scurrying across campus, Monsey heads to a small room where he can work. He is taking only one independent film class on campus, which will nab him credit for helping with "Chronic Town."

Monsey longs to become successful at filmmaking. He spends many late nights in a small office in the Bunnell Building, not in class and not doing class work, but working on his film editing hobby.

Dark circles surround his eyes. He drinks a half-filled Coke for energy and shakes his left leg as he waits by a computer screen to see if the new segment of his current film was edited the way he wanted. It's a compilation of short comedies for the upcoming UAF Film Club Spring Film Fest.

Monsey has always been interested in writing and experimenting with writing screenplays, but he hadn't started learning film production until two years ago.

His first film experience happened with the direction of his film friend Tyson Hansen. They made a commercial to air on Channel 11, but the it rejected it because it featured staged violence with guns. They fixed the problem by replacing the guns with maces.

In two years of effort, Monsey says his most successful film production was "Whiipish," made last fall.

"I got a Woody at the UAF film festival," he jokes, referring to an award given out by the Film Club.

Monsey says he loves what he does and is willing to do almost anything to pursue the career, even wrapping up film cords, moving monitors, fetching peanuts and crawling around picking things up on a commercial film production set.

Fairbanks actors aren't professional, he contends, and in order to really excel in this field you have to "get out of this town." Monsey plans to move to Los Angeles next fall.

The decision, a spontaneous one, evoked a "huh" from his girlfriend, Anna Bongiovannie. Monsey and Bongiovannie had originally planned on moving to Michigan where she attends art school. Although Bongiovannie was disappointed that he would no longer be joining her there, she also supported his career move.

"L.A. is all about networking," says Monsey, who lives in the basement of his grandmother's home.

On the set Monsey has many odd jobs and busywork, mostly small but important things.

"It wouldn't have moved as smoothly without these guys," says actor R.J. Bourne. "This has honestly been one of the most smoothly run sets I've been on and it's been great"

The end of the day is quiet. Bourne is filmed silently walking down a long hall.

"End cut!"

Monsey starts to wrap up the cords to move to the last scene of the movie. It's a wrap for the film, but just the beginning for Monsey.