After a successful spring show and a spike in the club roster this past year, it’s hard for some members of the Video Production Committee to think back to just a year prior.
Back then, this group of students, who write and produce their own short films, was struggling to find not only a place to screen their work, but a way to finish it. Thankfully, those days seem to be long gone.
“For the first time in VPC history, we had a showcase at Northwest Auditorium spring quarter and showed all of our films, from this year and also all the years before,” said Caty Zick, co-chair of VPC and third-year English student. “We had alumni come back and show their films, which was fun because they never had a chance to screen anywhere when they were here.”
Fourth-year history student Julian Carmona, who has seen VPC through its evolution from last year to this year, can attest to the group’s humble beginnings.
“Before, we had no forum to show anything,” Carmona said. “And when we were on set, we only had three or four people so we had to double over on jobs. In spring 2007, we were done shooting by 10th week, but we didn’t edit it until a year later. We just didn’t have the resources.”
But VPC began to pick up speed this year as more people joined the group. The additions began to translate to better quality film production.
“Our first meeting had 50 people there and for us, that’s astounding,” Carmona said. “When we shot “˜A Dinner Call’ this year, it looked like a real movie set with all these people walking around fixing things. It had the dynamic of a real production because we had so many more people.”
Zick cites the club’s leadership, as well as the increased head count, as the source of VPC’s string of accomplishments.
“There’s a much more dedicated core group and that helps us to get things done,” Zick said. “We’re a more ambitious group now. We focus on a lot of networking and experience film in L.A. together, whether it’s going to screenings or going on set with small films and small studios.”
In addition to working on their own projects, VPC brings in industry professionals to host workshops for their members, teaching them about everything from screenwriting to cinematography.
“It’s more about learning the craft,” Zick said. “We have people in the group who have never held a camera before. It’s about giving people a place to learn about filmmaking and we’re learning together.”
The educational component of the club has already affected the future of co-chair and second-year English student Brittni Rubin.
“If my life goes the way I want it to go, I want to write for television, and this is just giving me the experience of writing scripts,” Rubin said. “I’ve learned more about film in VPC than I’ve learned in my whole life.”
During the spring showcase, Rubin had yet another career-inspiring moment when she met Erin Dunlap, an alumna and former VPC member who now works on the set of “Desperate Housewives.”
“She even made a film similar to mine when she was here,” Rubin said. “Just to see her work when she was a sophomore at UCLA is motivational. To think, she started from this and made her way up to working for a popular TV show.”
Rubin hopes to learn more from her work with VPC, if only to follow in the footsteps of Dunlap.
“What I think is unique about the club is that it’s a hands-on experience,” Rubin said. “From the minute I stepped into the room, I felt like I was accomplishing something.”
Carmona, who helped significantly revamp the group over the year, considers this to be the most important aspect of VPC: putting theory into practice.
“That’s the aim. If we only did one film a year, it really wouldn’t matter to us. The whole idea is to get people to experience almost every aspect of film,” Carmona said. “It’s not about getting people who are experienced; it’s more about getting new members, and I think that’s really helped us out.