Sarah Mitchell - Indianapolis, Indiana

Sarah Mitchell

Indianapolis, Indiana Film Connection Student

It's been over a couple of months since my first class in film editing, and I've recently been able to sit in a real editing session with my mentor. I couldn't really do much since I'm still a student, but it was a fascinating lesson to observe and take not of just how working as a film editor would really look like. This is definitely a kind of studying I like, and it just inspires and motivates me to study and work harder to be better at this.

One great thing about this is that I am actually learning from a film editor, someone who's got experience in this field and who is more than willing to share these experiences and insights with me. And since I'm the only one this class, so to speak, I get to have his full attention and ask him all my questions.

There's always more to film making than the writers, directors, actors. After everything's been shot, the film goes through the editing room so that it can be arranged so that it makes the best impact on its audience. And I'm glad that I've now got the film connection to be a part of this amazing process.

Dexter Fabian - Kirby, Vermont

Dexter Fabian

Kirby, Vermont - Film Connection Student

Gladiator, Aliens, Body of Lies - these are just some of my favorite Ridley Scott movies. Naturally, like my hero, I want to be a director. I've been making my own movies since I was 10 years old, and I believed it was time to take it to the next level, if I was ever going to be like Ridley. To me, this meant I should stop dressing up my younger cousins in cardboard alien costumes while I pointed a video camera at them, and start getting proper film training.

I had a problem, though. I absolutely HATED school. I detested the idea of sitting through class after class, even classes that would help me become a better filmmaker. And then I found The Film Connection. How cool is it that they don't even have a campus? So how do their students get training then? By working on REAL film sets all over the country!

I was sold. It didn't take me long to enroll. Getting my first apprenticeship was even quicker. Not only that, I also found some new heroes: the very mentors who are teaching me the ropes.

Really, at the rate I'm learning, Ridley Scott ought to watch his back! (Just kidding. Well, not really.)

Jane Mitchell - Long Island, New York

Jane Mitchell

Film Connection Student Long Island, New York

What's a movie without a good story, right? It's like building a house. You can't just put up a piece of plywood up and hammer nails into it, make a few rooms together, and then call it a house. You need to have a blueprint that puts into paper the makings of a good home. Well, I think of screenwriting as the blueprint to an amazing movie. And of course, you've got to have talent to come up with a good story, but you'll need a lot of training to know just what story makes a good movie. Just like a blueprint is not a bunch of lines on a piece of paper, screenwriting is not string a bunch of words together.

Screenwriting, I've come to learn now, has both a creative and business side; and both sides are just fascinating me right now. Of course, the creative side is having a story that deserves to be told, the developing of plot points, making it tight and effective, so that possible viewers won't think that you're just taking them around in circles. But there's a business side to it too. Who do we approach so we can get out screenplay into a movie. How do we market it to make the right people get interested? And if we're already working on a movie, how are we able to trim our screenplay in case budget constraint calls for it, without sacrificing the integrity of the story?

These, and so many more, are things that I am learning under my mentor, an actual screenwriter who's got experience in both television and film. Under this tutelage, I've got the film connection I need to learn just how a story is made into a movie.

Darryl Jones - San Jose, California

Darryl Jones

San Jose, California - Film Connection Student

I've always been fascinated by the way lighting is done in movies. True, the story and the direction are what movies are all about, and yet it is interesting to note that the perfect or wrong lighting could easily either make or break a film. One wrong lighting in one scene and it could distract the viewers from the movie, and the whole story would now be lost under that technical mistake.

To do this perfectly is a mixture of technical know-how and creative genius, and I am enjoying my mentorship right now. I'm working with a lighting director who's teaching me so many things every day. There's the technical aspect of the different equipment needed for a particular scene. How to perfectly light a night scene, making it bright enough but still believable as night. I mean come on, doesn't it frustrate you when the lighting is just so unrealistic, but you don't really want to see dark scenes, right?

It's only been my first few weeks into this mentorship program, and already I'm learning so much. Pretty soon, I can't wait to actually get my hands on lighting equipment for a hands-on experience. This is such an exciting program. I'm getting that film connection to be a part of the little details that make a movie so magical.

Eugene Castle - Washington DC

Eugene Castle

Film Connection Student - Washington DC

Can I be so bold to say that I want to be the next Steven Spielberg? I want to be able to make those hard-hitting award-winning films that capture the hearts of viewers all over the world. Or maybe the George Lucas, turning into reality the wonders of our imagination, merging creativity and the best of technology into one amazing film.

But I have to admit, even my best intention, and even if I was the most creative person in the world, there's still so many things I have to know about the field of filmmaking other than what I could get from books and what I could learn from watching hundred of movies on DVDs and cinemas. I need that film connection to guide me correctly to be able to excel in this.

This is where my mentor comes in. He's actually been out doing his thing in films for over a decade now, and he gets to teach me the tricks of the trade that he's learned not through books, not through a classroom, but from actual experience. Our one-on-one sessions are so enlightening because I understand it so much more clearly when I have his full attention, and of course, he has mine.

Okay, so I may not exactly be the next Spielberg or Lucas, but I'll be close, that I can tell.

Lisa Burdock - Tucson, Arizona

Lisa Burdock

Tucson, Arizona - Film Connection Student

Isn't is amazing how films have so many different genres? Think about it. There's definitely a film or two for everybody. I know it sounds like a cliche, but one of the best ways to relax and unwind after a stressful day at work or at school is to just stick some popcorn in a microwave and settle down with a film. Maybe it's something you've been dying to see since your best friend recommened it to you or maybe it's that favorite movie from your childhood that you've watched at least a million times.

I guess that's why I like to study film making. I want to be behind those films that touch millions of lives either through the big screen or just the TV in the living room. To be behind one of mankind's greatest comfort, whether it's just to relax after working so hard or to broaden their horizons without leaving their seats.

The thing with films is that they're a pretty creative field. You can't just learn how to be good at this by copying notes written on a blackboard along with fifty or so classmates. You need someone to show you how it's done not just because that's how it's written in some books. Not that books aren't helpful; they are. But with something like film making, it's better to have a one-on-one session with an expert who's really had experience. Some people learn better this way; I know I do. I work better with a mentor/tutor that's focused only on me and will not be distracted by another student.

Now that is what I call learning.

Samantha Griffin – New Jersey

Samantha Griffin
Film Connection Student - New Jersey

I love films! I'm completely over-the-top, nuts over the whole thing. True, there are so many different genres of films, from so many different countries, that you cannot even begin to start watching them. One of my biggest dreams is to have been able learn about film studies.

Setting up sets, creating the screenplay and scripts, making the costumes, practicing the stunts and choreography as well as mastering the best visual effects there is, these are things that I want to learn! There has been a lot of interest recently for film studies all over the world. With all of the news and recent breaking stories on the television, one or two or a few of them are bound to be made into a biography or documentary or even b-rated film.

Films are a good way to relax. It allows our imagination to run and be free. There are many, many stories that allow us to do that. A lot of people don't even know it but they are lucky to have it!

A lot of us don't have it. But for those who do, they are lucky to have the right film connection in and with them. I envy them. They get to study the thing where many people only dream of studying! The field of study of a lifetime!