A film crew captured the journey of three recent graduates from TCU’s sesquicentennial class that had its first year disrupted by COVID-19.

A camera crew followed three TCU students throughout their four years as a Horned Frog. Their stories can be seen on Facebook Live on Oct. 16.

Olivia Fannon, John Freeny and Thien An Nguyen graduated in TCU’s class of 2023, but they left behind more than just memories.

The three students were part of a documentary by Fort Worth-based Red Productions. The film was close to their hearts because they were all TCU alums and shared how making the film brought them back to their days as students.

They all had different ways of getting picked for the film. Nguyen received an email, but Fannon got an invite from Brad Thompson, the faculty member in charge of the Crew, which Fannon joined in her first year.

Fannon recounted a funny interaction with Thompson after a first-year event. She asked him if she was able to jump a fence, which he replied, “no, that’s what the fence is there for.”

After that, he knew she was right for the documentary.

Fannon and Nguyen were in attendance for a special preview where they answered a few questions about the documentary and what it was like to see themselves on the big screen.

“I was nervous watching it because I know I was a very different person coming in being so shy,” said Nguyen. “But by the end of it, I see myself way more comfortable in front of the camera and it shows how TCU teaches you to love yourself.”

“There’s a part of of me that’s like ‘that’s me… I acted that crazy,'” said Fannon. “But it also really brings you back to that place and time and I can feel it now.”

One of those specific times was having to go home due to the pandemic.

“Seeing the COVID-19 scenes, I was depressed and you can tell,” said Fannon.

When students went home, Chancellor Victor Boschini said it was one of the hardest decisions that “kept him up at night.”

It also posed one of the biggest challenges for the production team, who had to figure out what to do with students they were supposed to follow around on-campus.

The team ended up with the three students after starting with eight. COVID-19 forced them to choose the strongest stories to fit into 30 minutes, which were those of Fannon, Nguyen and Feeny.

The students sent in at-home vlogs during quarantine, which gave an inside look into life during the pandemic. For Freeny, that meant a “ruined sleep schedule” and struggling with isolation as an extroverted person.

After the pandemic, the movie follows the three students throughout their last three years and ending with graduation.

Fannon will be moving to Wisconsin in January to work as a project manager for Epic, a healthcare software company. Nguyen is still a Horned Frog, but for medical school at TCU’s Burnett School of Medicine.

Along with the TCU documentary, the production group has also did the Texas Rangers City Connect Jersey tribute video and Kendrick Lamar’s N95 music video, which was filmed partly in Fort Worth.

The film will premiere on Facebook Live on Monday.