When Jane Nam, Olivia Scott and Ana Orellana came to UT, they realized that as radio-television-film majors they wouldn’t have full access to UT’s film resources or media studies until they became upperclassmen. Disappointed, they started producing short films alongside seven other RTF freshmen in September.
The group of friends consider themselves a production organization, and, so far, they have worked on two short films together. For Nam, Scott and Orellana, the production empowers the first experience in which they’ve collaborated with a large, motivated crew.
“It’s been a fun adjustment. It’s so nice to be with people that are passionate about film,” Orellana said. “In film classes, you see a lot of people that are not very passionate because they just want the easy grade. It can be frustrating working with people that don’t (want) to be there.”
Most recently, Nam, Scott and Orellana brainstormed a romance short film, “Stars Align,” together when studying late in the library. However, Scott said beyond arranging the storyline, crew and actors, the group struggled to find locations to film in. Filming also proved difficult when moving between locations while lugging their limited equipment around.
“We all don’t have cars on campus, so trying to figure out how we’re going to get to Mueller Park, who in the friend group has a car, who is willing to let us use their car to take equipment or other things — it’s so complicated just for one location outside campus,” Scott said.
Orellana said many spots on campus require film request submissions two weeks prior to filming, which proves difficult to plan when managing the schedules of the whole crew. Nam said even when they find a location, it doesn’t always work as well as they hope. At one point when working on “Stars Align,” she resorted to transforming her dorm room into an office space.
“We have to be creative to transform these specific locations we are allowed to shoot in into something else,” Scott said.
Nam, Scott and Orellana all said because of this trial-and-error creative process, the group members learned more about what they enjoy and don’t enjoy about filmmaking. They shared that the experience allowed them to flesh out their personal passions and strengths and work in a way they couldn’t previously.
“In high school, I always made videos that would fulfill my teachers’ expectations for the grades, but this time I got to do whatever I wanted to do,” Nam said.
Most importantly, Nam, Scott and Orellana expressed that the group gifted each member a stronger sense of community in their first semester of college with friends who share interests. Orellana said they’ve also given themselves a base to work off of for the next few years, so they can look back by graduation and see how far they have come.
“It might be harder (now),” Orellana said. “But I think looking back on it, we’ll be proud of what we made with the things that we had.”