So, this was the first film I ever worked on!
Early into my second term at Cardiff Uni my friend dragged me to a meeting of Film Society, and I decided to stick around. I was a little overwhelmed at first, as I only knew one person there, but oddly I found myself settling in quite quickly.
We were put into teams and set the challenge of creating a short film over the coming week, with the catch that we couldn’t use dialogue or in-camera sound; we could only use ‘foley’. That weekend our team met up…
I LOVED it.
Yes, the film wasn’t anything special. Looking back at it now, especially in light of some better films I’ve made since, I can see it clearer than ever. Yes, there’s continuity errors and poor focusing. Yes, it takes over a minute to establish something that could have been done with a much shorter use of screen time. But for a first attempt? Not too bad.
I remember watching it for the first time and thinking proud that I’d finally made a short film after years of watching people more talented than me on YouTube and being jealous.
Since then I’ve made many more films, and as of writing this, am the sitting President of the Film Society. Though the product is ultimately eh, the process of making it introduced me to a passion I didn’t really know I had, and I’m now striving to find a career within the production industry, particularly as a writer.
So I guess the lesson is that you should always take that opportunity whilst you can, because you never know where you’ll end up.
Samuel D. Capper 