The filmmaking BFA: Reviewing the past and looking towards the future SUUFILM

Students like Hutchings have been working to hone their filmmaking skills on their own through campus jobs and video production classes.

Club, a student-led club that votes on a script and works together to create it throughout the semester. This is another way students have been getting a taste of film outside of the program. Blickenstaff is currently working with the club to create a short film written by another member of the cohort, Tatelyn Clark.

“The club is operating on a level where you are able to learn the basics and shadow other students as they do production,” Blickenstaff said.

It is involvement like this that has propelled many students out of the beginning stages of camera operation and into a basic understanding of how making a short film works. The club has served as both an introduction and as a space for continued practice while new and experienced students alike wait for the program to take off.

As they have worked through the semester, many students attend all of their classes with one another. With each class, bonds are formed and the cohort begins to form relationships that will continue to benefit them long after graduation.

Mehmedinovic explained that filmmaking is not the place to be introverted. Because film is the most collaborative art form, it is about who you know.

“That’s one of the great things about film school,” Mehmedinovic said. “Everyone who comes in should become good friends with one another, and they need to work together and support one another because it’s not a one person situation out in the field.”

Madeline Bradley, a junior in the filmmaking program, is looking forward to the connections she will form with her classmates. Because she has always been a solo filmmaker, she is excited for the team aspect of future projects.

“I’m really looking forward to everyone settling into their personal niches and then everyone coming together to work on films,” Bradley said.

As the semesters move forward, teamwork will become more important as thesis films are pitched to and selected by the class and the cohort is placed into teams to fulfill the vision of each project.

However, there is a notable threat to the smooth continuation of the program: the building.

The new classroom building has been in progress since June 25, 2021, as setbacks relating to COVID-19 and supply shortages postponed construction. With the new building comes a large amount of equipment for the program, including filming kits for students to check out, lighting, a foley stage and film cameras.

“The building is a space where the concepts can be taught and then dialed in once [they] enter the industry,” Tiger Funk, the assistant vice president of facilities management, explained.

Many of those involved in the program have expressed both their frustration and excitement over eventually getting their hands on the equipment that is currently waiting for a home.

However, despite delays, SUU is unique in the sense that film buildings and film programs are rarely created at the same time. Many other programs use whatever space they have available, often moving in and out of temporary settings and working outside of a professional environment.

“There are maybe five or six film schools across the country that have proper facilities,” Mehmedinovic said, “and that’s something I’m looking forward to — I’m not speaking theoretically, I’m actually showing people what to do.”

The current schedule for the building has faculty and equipment moving sometime in March and April, respectively. If all goes to plan, classes should begin in the summer, and the filmmaking program will be able to utilize the space in fall 2023. This means that the program will no longer be spread across campus, and students will have the opportunity to use the equipment.

The future of the film program is easily summed up by Hutchings: “We’ve been waiting for this major for years; we’re ready to go!”

- Written by Audrey Gee

Andrew Whyman, Sam Howarth, Jake Norton, Naomi Ogden, Sarah “Graveey” Hutchings, Elias McDaniel, Carson Blickenstaff, Megan Newbold, Rhys Kaiser, Madeline Bradley, Lilly Sowell, Sophia Molino, Tatelyn Clark, Alyx Fryer, McKenna Murphy. Not pictured: Maddison Fait, Bailey Giles, Ambrose Hu, Sally Johnstun