The first two nights of NFFTY 2012 have been incredible! I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to intern at NFFTY, which led to the opportunity to submit a film to the festival, which led to actually having my short accepted and screened at the festival; all of which has led to this amazing weekend!
This is going to be a long post so bare with it, might break it into two. Thursday, April 26th, was the Opening Night of the National Film Festival for Talented Youth 2012 (NFFTY 2012). The red carpet was laid out, the lights were shining, filmmakers and fans were pouring it. There was energy and excitement in the air. As an intern, my task for the night was to capture the atmosphere of the event through creative and stylized b-roll coverage. This means shooting crowd shots, branding, establishing shots, capturing random moments of awesome throughout the night that can be used as inserts and cutaways for the highlight videos that are put out during the festival. So for the entire first part of the night, I was running around the entirety of the famous Seattle Cinerama, weaving in and out of some of the world’s most talented young filmmakers.
Once the event moved into the theater for the opening night films, I was relieved of my intern duties and joined Nav in the theater audience. One of the first things Jesse Harris, the founder of NFFTY, did was have all the screening filmmakers stand up for recognition. That was a chilling but incredible feeling for me to stand up with 220 other young filmmakers from around the country and around the world. It’s like wow, these young filmmakers from near and far have worked their asses off following their passion of filmmaking and they are finally getting they’re night and weekend of fame. They have the satisfaction and pride of getting to work, toil and sweat over their project, their baby, and then have it play center stage in front one of the most prominent filmmaking communities in Seattle and the world. And I, me, Eric Schofhauser, actually get to take part in that, not only as an intern, but as a screening filmmaker, albeit, my film is pitiful in comparison to the caliber of the others screening, it was an incredible feeling standing there with everyone else as the audience applauded us. Around me, standing, was the future of film, and that was an incredibly powerful and inspiring experience.
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Friday was the second night of NFFTY 2012. My night started with a Filmmaker Mixer at the Palace Ballroom downtown near Cinerama. I got to meet filmmakers from places as far off as NYU and Arkansas, and some as local as SPU here in Seattle. It was fantastic getting to hear their stories of how they got to where they are now here at NFFTY and talking about each other’s films; getting especially excited of the thoughts of collaborating on a big film project someday! It was a great networking opportunity and fun to mingle with people just as excited and just as passionate about filmmaking as me.
From there, Nav and I walked over the SIFF Uptown theater in Queen Anne, where the night’s screenings would take place. At night’s end, I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited about filmmaking as I was at that moment. The caliber of films screened Friday night was mind blowing. Not only were some films as high quality as professional done indie films and Hollywood productions, but the story concepts were fun, original, and creative. I spent the night running between the two screening theater rooms trying to see as many of the night’s films as possible. The categories of the films I got to see that night were: Keep it Cinematic; Sex, Lies & Angst; Late Night Comedy; and Late Night Horror. There’s not enough time or space on here to really delve into what were my favorites from each category and why. But what I can go on about is how much tonight and all of NFFTY is one incredible learning experience. One, I’m getting to watch all these amazing films and hear about the processes the filmmakers went through to make them during the Q&A sessions; and two, watching these films, I am connecting and bringing together all of the things I have been learning over the past two quarters as a CineMedia major. My experiences in acting classes, screenwriting classes, directing seminars all come into play as I watch these showcases of youth talent. As I watch a film, I can’t help but automatically analyze it for what is working and what isn’t in it. I have Andrew Tsao’s voice in one ear speaking about dramatic narrative and acting, and in my other ear I have Shawn Wong’s voice speaking about element’s of screenwriting and dialogue. Watching these films was such a learning experience for me for when I want to go and make my own stuff. For example, within one film, I can be watching and think, wow this is an incredible scene, and know why it’s incredible, why it’s working and what the filmmaker was thinking when he/she was creating it, because of the tools I have gained from CineMedia. Similarly, within that same film, I will watch a scene and think, mmmm this scene isn’t working exactly right, something’s off, and I’ll know why it’s not working because of the skills I’ve gained from CineMedia. Each film had moments of pure awesome glory as well as moments that just missed the mark. And each one taught me something different or left me with a different take away that I could apply to my future film projects.
When it comes right down to it, Friday night just made me want to get the heck out there and go make films. The films inspired me with ideas, with concepts, making me want to get out there and take risks with film ideas, try new things I have tried before, try to make a film in each genre: horror, comedy, romance, adventure, whatever it is. I feel as though NFFTY has shown me that I have the skills, the knowledge, the mindset (stemming from my training in CineMedia) to buckle down and start producing films. I know I have the technological resources to produce what I want, and I know I have the skills and know-how to produce what I want. I wish I could just take a bunch of time off from school, from work, from everything, to just really focus hard on filmmaking. Really dive into taking a chunk out of that 10,000 hours cliché, whether it be reading hundreds of scripts, watching hundred of films, or working on pre-production, production, and post-production on my own projects or friends’ projects, I just want to be making films. I want the time to do this stuff and it can be frustrating when I feel shackled down by money issues or school and work obligations, when I know that if I could commit to this 100%, 110%, it could take me so far. Filmmaking is a long term commitment, it’s a lifestyle, and it requires a lot from you upfront, without a promise of reward. It’s a gamble, there’s no question. But it’s a gamble I want to take. It’s my future, and it’s my life and I want to be able to live it to the fullest.
Again, I just want to reiterate my gratitude and appreciation NFFTY has given me and the 1000s of youth filmmakers out there. It’s an amazing, amazing, amazing organization and I want to help it grow as much as possible so that more and more youth filmmakers out there can find the support and have the experiences that I am having at this phenomenal event. Thank you to Jesse Harris, Sam Kelly, Lindsey Johnson, and all those who make NFFTY possible. We are the future of film.
ericschofhauser 