LOS ANGELES — Under the noonday sun on April 15, cinematographer Peng Wang, 29, was in the back of an all-terrain vehicle traversing Imperial County’s sand dunes with three other filmmakers, working on a movie for the University of Southern California’s prestigious School of Cinematic Arts.
The otherworldly backdrop was the setting for a surreal short feature called “Finale,” about a man who journeys to his death in the desert. Wang was a third-year graduate student at Chapman University’s film school and had volunteered to help the USC crew complete its directing course project.
The team was running late and working on little sleep, having not reached their hotel until after midnight after a long drive from Los Angeles, said one crew member who declined to be named. The crew members had just finished their first scene when the group went out to check the next location in the dunes. Minutes later, word came over the radio that the Can-Am Maverick had rolled over and Wang had been injured, the crew member said.
