Joe Clarke grabbed some paper towels to mop up the fake blood that had spilled all over his script.

Throwing the pages down to dry, the UI senior returned to adjusting the lighting and camera angle for a scene in the next episode of his Student Video Productions show, “Blendered."

Clarke will graduate in May 2010. And less than a month later, he plans to start filming his first full-length movie.

“It’s always been my dream to make movies,” the film major said. “So I figured, why not do it right out of the gate?”

His postgraduation project will be a spoof of 1970s kung-fu movies — but he’s is careful not to give too much away about the screenplay he’s working on. He has a few actors lined up but is still looking for a producer and other help.

“I don’t know exactly what to expect,” he said. “It will be nerve-racking, but it will be a blast.”

An actor working with Clarke echoed the sentiment.

“I’m looking forward to it. It’s a fun new environment, so I thought I’d give it a shot,” said UI junior Hai Tran, who will play the main villain.

Though Clarke, whose favorite movies are Rocky and Rocky IV, contemplated going to Los Angeles, he eventually decided to stay in Iowa, where he said he could find good talent.

The majority of the movie, then, will be filmed in Iowa City. Enter what could be one of the biggest difficulties: making Iowa City look like Asia.

Equally difficult could be securing the necessary cash. He hopes to solicit donations from businesses, but he knows he’ll also have to dip into his own bank account.

The Hillcrest resident assistant got his first camera from his brother when he was 12 and started making “really bad movies,” he said and laughed. He grew up on “old-school” action movies, which contributed to why he chose kung fu for his first movie.

The hobby started to get more serious — and memorable — by Clarke’s junior year in high school.

The 21-year-old was filming a scene with now-coproducer and UI senior Patrick Bottaro when police almost arrested the pair. Their possible charges: trespassing and having “a lot” of fake guns.

Luckily, though, they got off.

“It’s been a lot of fun and we’ve made a lot of good stuff,” Botarro said. “We’re always bouncing ideas off of each other and helping each other with problems.”

Clarke might spend two weekends a month working on his next show for “Blendered” — from directing to editing to shooting.

On Oct. 17, he hurried around a Linn Street house-turned-movie-set, kneeling down to tape an actor’s hands behind the chair and planning the sound effect when one character is knocked out with a guitar.

And though Clarke had his actors repeat every scene numerous times, each person in the room laughed through most of the filming.

“He makes it easy to act,” said UI junior Tyler Thirnbeck. “He makes us feel comfortable.”