For sophomore Ignacio Rodriguez, making short films is more than just a hobby.
“It’s a piece of art to reach out to someone and appeal to their emotions, whether it be sadness, laughter or anything,” Rodriguez said.
Short films are videos or short segments that could last from as little as 15 seconds to 10 minutes. You have a concept idea and the director can expand on it with little details here and there, according to Rodriguez. For example, “Tales of Radiator Springs” are not complete episodes from a show, just snippets meant to be amusing for kids on Disney Channel.
“Sometimes they try to portray an emotion through a short film,” Rodriguez said.
He got into the making of short films back in 2013. He saw that YouTube started to have an influx of independent filmmakers and that seemed to be how many people’s videos started to get acknowledged. He wanted to do something original and something that wasn’t being done by many. Jonathan Paul from Jog View Productions was his biggest inspiration.
Although he enjoys directing, editing is ultimately Rodriguez’s favorite part about the making of short films.
“It’s not like painting where you have a canvas and to start over you need a completely new canvas. You can restructure the canvas in video editing and it’s really fun to do. To make a video, it’s all about video editing,” Rodriguez said.
He makes about two films a month for his pure entertainment and to show to his friends for amusement. He also makes them to experiment with different effects and try out new equipment.
Originally Rodriguez wanted to take this up as a career. Rodriguez’s friend, sophomore Hailey Boger, says that him going to college for short filmmaking was a possibility. As a career, he felt as if he couldn’t get anywhere trying to make a future out of directing short films, therefore, he would rather aim towards working for a television station for the production crew.
Boger enjoys watching his films and helping him make them. She says that the two of them work pretty well together.
“If you’re ever going to pick up making films, don’t be afraid to make something bad,” Rodriguez said.