Michael Nankin, 24, and David Wechter, 23, are two bright young filmmakers who have written and directed and produced their first feature film, "Midnight Madness," an outrageous college comedy financed but not produced by Walt Disney Productions.

Two years ago, Wechter and Nankin were film students struggling to get their 16mm movie "Junior High School" off the ground, when executive producer Ron Miller called them after seeing it.

"Ron called us in for an appointment," remembered Wechter. "He talked about our old neighborhood in Encino and the good old days of Ventura boulevard for about 20 minutes. I think he liked seeing us squirm. Then out of the blue he said, 'We'll give you a couple of offices, put you on salary for six months and you can do whatever you want."

"We had hit the big time! Making movies is what we wanted," added Nankin. "Ron was true to his word. Nobody hassled us. After all, if we didn't come through, we'd be gone in six months."

"Well, our contract was renewed," said Wechter, "and we started production on 'Midnight Madness' last July."

"The idea of the film came to us on our second day here. I remembered reading a newspaper article about some guy who staged treasure hunts; apparently there are alot of others that go on around the country, too, so the show could actually happen. We wanted to make it funny but believable. Ron liked it and gave us the go-ahead to develop the idea."

"All this didn't happen overnight," Nankin said. "David and I celebrated our 10th anniversary of filmmaking while shooting 'Midnight Madness."

"In eighth grade we were writing satires on commercials and making Super 8 movies and slide shows. We drove our parents nuts making them sit through all our great productions," Wechter said. "We continued making films throughout high school, half of which were satires on educational films."

Nankin and Wechter chose different universities, UCLA and USC, but they continued to work together on films including "Gravity," which won 30 domestic and international awards.

"In film school you can't make student films until the third year," said Wechter. "We didn't want to wait, so we made two 16mm films, 'Girls Who Wear Glasses' and 'Gravity.' We were tired of everyone making depressing Vietnam films, or introspective student films where some guy gets his girlfriend to romp naked in a field of daisies. So we made 'Gravity,' a nine-minute spoof on the old science class educational films with an animated character showing us how to conserve gravity."

"We brought in our script of 'Junior High School' and had it reviewed by a five-man panel at USC. Out of 25 scripts only seven could be chosen. We were turned down. They thought the film would cost too much money. But USC's cinema department said 'If I know you guys, you'll make this film even though you were turned down.'

"It was the best thing that ever happened to us. We decided to make this film an outside project and our Paradise Pictures became a reality.

"Junior High School' took two years to make. Mike was still at UCLA so we used the UCLA facilities.

"We rewrote the show six times, and decided to use color. It ended up costing %25,000. We used the money we got from a Times commercial we made, bank loans, loans from our parents and a $9,000 grant for post-production from the American Film Institute.

"Junior High School" won numerous film festival awards and was shown at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition in March, 1979. But even before it won any awards, it caught the eye of Don Duckwall, head of Disney's animation talent development program. He liked the film and brought 'Junior High School' to the attention of Irving Ludwig, president of Buena Vista Distribution. Ludwig suggested that Ron Miller take a look at it.

"We've always like Disney films," said Wechter, "but we are not here to make a typical Disney movie. We haven't had to make any compromises and the company has given us complete freedom."

"When we got the okay from Ron on 'Midnight Madness,' we knew we also wanted to direct the film," said Nankin.

"But our biggest hurdle came from the Directors Guild. Apparently, there's a rule: only one director to a film. We had to prove to them we were an established team.

"We were called before a committee of directors to review our situation. It was like a tribunal of elders, and we were the initiates. In the room there were some 30 directors including Mel Brooks, Robert Aldrich, Arthur Hiller and Cornell Wilde.

"It was a very tense night for us. I really didn't think we were both going to get to direct. But the next day we got a call from the guild saying we could do it just this once.

"It's a dream come true for us," said Nankin, "but it's not all gold, it's a lot of hard work."

"We've wanted to make movies ever since we can remember," said Wechter, "but we didn't want to go the messenger or network page route that everyone said we had to do. If someone asked us our advice it would be 'Go out and make a film of your own. Show what you can do, because anything is still possible in Hollywood, or should I say Burbank?"

Recently, Nankin and Wechter had their contract extended for another year. They will be developing new projects for Disney, although not all will be presented with the company's name.

"We encouraged them to make 'Midnight Madness' without our interference," Miller said. "We were prepared for content that might not be right for Disney, but we wanted them to have complete creative freedom.

"Michael and David have developed a comedy with strong appeal for teenagers and young adults, although certain elements may not be acceptable for very young viewers."

Miller said that because parents use the Disney name in selecting their children's entertainment, the studio felt it had an obligation not to confuse them by including a Disney presentation credit on "Midnight Madness." The company's Buena Vista Distribution arm will release the movie in February.

Starring are David Naughton, Stephen Furst, Debra Clinger, Eddie Deezen, maggie Roswell, Brad Wilkin and Irene Tedrow. In color by Technicolor, "Midnight Madness" is released by Buena Vista.

This information is according to the Advance Campaign Material from Buena Vista Distribution Co., Inc.