The first time I was on a film set, my life changed forever. I have always loved movies and storytelling through the art of film. My dad worked for NBC for 20 years and then spent the last 15 working for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was a director of many projects, including the Book of Mormon videos. I was able to visit the set with him a few times and loved every second of it.
As I began studying video production, I fell in love with every aspect of the process. I also came to realize, however, that this was not the direction I wanted to take in my career. I have always had a love for theme parks, and for the creative ideas and hard work that is put into creating immersive experiences. This comes back to my favorite aspect of film, storytelling. While I kept studying video production for my major, my goals evolved and I now want to go into project management for theme parks.
I wanted to find a way to mesh these two passions into one thing for this project. I figured that directing was the best way to make a video project in line with my major while still learning new skills about project management and leadership. I met Kid Finesse (Seth Finance) in my ward at church. When I discovered that he makes music it was the perfect opportunity for both of us. This music video is for an original song that just released this past weekend.
This project had many highs and lows. Originally, a friend and I were going to make a longer documentary. That didn’t work out so we were going to make a short film. Once again we hit roadblocks and had to do our projects separately. I was then going to make a mock advertisement, until I had the music video idea. From there came all of the pre-production. I ran into more roadblocks when I couldn’t get locations secured. Luckily everything worked out for the best.
From meeting to discuss ideas for the video, to directing my talented friends as they helped with production, to sitting with my mentor getting critiques on the process, I feel as though I have learned so much from this project. Communication may be my major, but sometimes I am not the best at it. I am not great at speaking my mind and telling others what to do, so directing was the perfect opportunity to get out of my shell and grow my communication skills. I think the class that helped me be most prepared for leading a team of individuals to create this video was Group Dynamics. Learning about different roles in groups and how to be a good leader helped prepare me for this task. I am proud to say that I created a project that both fulfilled all of the requirements of this class and more importantly, helped me grow as a person and be more prepared for the future.
Production Materials:
Behind the Scenes Photos:
Photos by Emma Cahill-Tillett
