As the Fall term comes to an end here at IAFT-LA, it coincides with student film projects.  As you may or may not know, students in our filmmaking program (either Diploma or Certificate) make their own short films during the term.  With the first several weeks spent studying the basics of screenwriting, directing, cinematography, editing and sound, students then put their knowledge to use in the real world of making a movie.  The challenge this term was to make a 4-5 minute film without recording any sound (although music and SFX can be added during the editing process).  This type of exercise gets the filmmakers thinking about their stories in a purely visual way because…what are movies after all, but a story told through pictures?

Although they’re still in the process of editing their movies, we got a chance to check in with some of the students to find out what their experience was like making their first film in the program here at IAFT.  All are in their first term at the film school, but judging from the footage we’ve already seen, it didn’t keep any of them from being ambitious – even their first time out.  Freddy’s drama centers on the last moments of a tortured man’s life. “I felt like Ed Wood the whole shoot,” Freddy mentioned with a smile, and was overwhelmed with a positive feeling afterwards when seeing his footage put together.  “I’ve never done anything like this before.”  We’ve already seen a rough cut of Freddy’s movie, and we have to agree it’s coming together very nicely – he did a fantastic job.

Cristian’s film deals with a teenager learning some important life-lessons about impulsiveness and missed connections.  With an ambitious schedule under his belt, Cristian mentioned: “I organized everything really well.  It was cool and a good experience.”  We saw one quick scene from his movie, and it’s clear he’s managed to get a lot of great production value into his film.

Although we didn’t get a chance to view any of Pete’s film, we’re definitely looking forward to it.  He’s one of the few students who went for a comedy, and based on his excellent script we’re looking forward to seeing his movie.

While it’s true you can’t get through any film school without a lot of theory, class work and study, there’s nothing like the satisfaction of getting behind the camera and putting all that you’ve learned to the test.  It sounds like all our students had an amazing experience shooting their scripts, and we can’t wait to see the final results…soon!