Alum writes feature film starring Rainn Wilson

“Code 3,” written by LLCC graduate Patrick Pianezza, recently debuted in movie theatres across the U.S. And it all started when he stumbled upon an emergency medical services (EMS) course at LLCC.

“My life is a series of happy accidents,” says Pianezza. “I had to be a full-time student to stay on my parents’ insurance, so I was furiously going through the catalog and found a course that was eight credit hours. It happened to be an EMS course.”

It didn’t take long for him to get hooked. On his first day at a clinical site, there was a code in the trauma room. “You couldn’t have scripted a better movie moment. I opened the door, and the doctor was shocking the person with the old school paddles. I heard, ‘Clear! Boom!’ I thought this is incredible; I want to do this forever.”

Pianezza earned his biology degree along with certificates in EMT, intermediate EMT and paramedic at LLCC while working locally in emergency services. He transferred to the University of South Carolina, continuing to work as a paramedic, when another happy accident occurred. “I had a homework assignment in a creative writing class. The professor told us the old cliché that to write well, write what you know. I had just come off this brutal shift and remember thinking, ‘Oh you want a story? I’ll tell you a story!’ I cranked out a 36-page short story about my experiences as a paramedic.” 

That short story lay dormant as Pianezza completed his bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree in health administration, which included an externship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. 

Meanwhile his brother Paul, who also attended LLCC, was working at a studio in Los Angeles. He encouraged Pianezza to turn his short story into a script. Paul was pestering his co-worker, the director Christopher Leone, to read the script. Enter another happy accident. “My brother made some kind of bet with Chris, and Chris lost. His punishment was he had to read my script. He liked it enough and wanted to come on board and be a co-writer on it. After writing on it and making it better and stronger for a dozen years, it ended up in Rainn Wilson’s hands, who really liked it. Once we had him, he got us a studio and financing, and then we were off to the races.”

Wilson plays the main character, Randy, named after Randy Romadka, Patrick’s EMS instructor at LLCC. “It was awesome working with Rainn and co-star Rel (Lil Rel Howery); it was like having a front row seat to the best comedy show.”
It’s not all about laughter though. “Our team agreed that the patient would never be the butt of the joke. I’d say the lead character is 80-85% me. We never had to make up a scenario. I’ve seen just about everything.”

They also were committed to medical accuracy. Pianezza was on set every day to make sure everything was as true to life as possible. “You’re going to get a taste of what this job is and what it takes, and part of the goal is to be a recruitment tool for and elevate EMS to the broader audience while being honest about what it is.” 

He said LLCC definitely influenced his life and career choices. “LLCC was very important to me. It really gave me structure and guided me in ways that, in retrospect, had massive impact.”