At the UT filmmaking camp, I learned how to use advanced cameras, utilize professional sound equipment, and edit with Adobe Premiere Pro. Over the course of the week, I created the concept for a short film, wrote said script, and went through production and post production. Additionally, they screened examples of award-winning short films for us to learn from. It taught me a lot about movie-making, and the final products of each group at the camp ranged from somewhat decent to genuinely impressive.

The concept the four of us went with for our short film was “The Sixth Sin”, a short film about the dangers of gluttony. Essentially, the lead character gets transported into ‘The Backrooms’ when he steals a donut from his coworker. There, he is chased by a green blob, a manifestation of his gluttony. It’s pretty easy to spot some issues with that premise when our budget was about zero dollars. The buildings around us were great to simulate the environment of ‘The Backrooms’, but our biggest issue was the blob. We originally planned for the blob to be myself, covered in a green tarp of some kind, but we realized we had no way to procure such an item in a reasonable timeframe. We experimented with trash bags, duct tape, and glowsticks, but nothing formed a convincing monster. We eventually had to cut our losses and simply have the blob talk offscreen in an AI-modulated voice. We also had issues with shot continuity – we had an outline and storyboards, but once we started shooting, it was all up in the air. We had to fill several gaps in the timeline with narration. The final product didn’t quite live up to our initial ambition, but I’m still quite happy with how it turned out.

The experience at these camps is largely dependent on the other people in them. Everyone picks groups of four based on what concepts they find interesting. These are the people I planned and made creative decisions with, and spending so many hours a day around them, I got to know them well. This was a great opportunity to form connections around film, and to get a read on what the average person interested in the field is like. Even now, I am still in touch with some of the people from my 2023 screenwriting camp. 

Besides the students, the faculty at these camps are graduate students at UT, and generally the teacher to student ratio is amazing. There is almost always help when you need it, and they bring unique perspectives on the film industry and film school. Being college students, they are also often relaxed and approachable. 

A lot of the unexpected appeal from these experiences comes from getting to spend time on the UT campus. The films are shot around the Moody College of Communications building, which is huge and interesting to explore. Lunch is in the Union (a building with lots of franchise restaurants) or at any other place on campus that the students and faculty can agree on. We also took somewhat of a field trip to the Harry Ransom Center, a film museum. It was a lot of fun to walk through the city and see what the campus had to offer.

Though I will say, the time windows were somewhat exhausting. No matter how good the filmmaking experience is, eight hour days spent fully engaged in the creative process can be difficult to get through. The amount of time is perfectly justified, as nearly every minute of it was spent to get my short film where I wanted it to be, but it still required some muscling through, especially on the editing days.

Overall, the UT Filmmaking camp was another quality venture for me to get hands-on experience in my careers/activities of interest. My final short film is very fun to watch, and I’ll remember this experience for a long time.