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Issue #68 – Student Successes
by L. Swift and Jeff McQ
“Since I was little, I would watch movies over and over again,” says Film Connection apprentice Jamie Reed of his lifelong passion for film. “Growing up, I would make tiny movies with a crappy camera that my parents had…I liked film because it could take you out of the world and put you in a different world for a certain amount of time and make you forget everything. Anything was possible inside of movies.”
But when it came time to prepare for a career, Jamie found himself at a crossroads, knowing he needed an education and even scoping out a few film schools, but dreading the idea of film school in general. He didn’t want to sit in a class: he wanted to get involved. “I wanted to get out there,” says Jamie. “I wanted to gain experience through action.”
So when Jamie discovered the Film Connection, the choice to learn filmmaking on-the-set was obvious. “Film Connection was, by far, the best option I could choose,” he says. “I was not a person ready for four years in a college class.”
Jamie was placed with Emmy-winning Film Connection mentor Zac Adams of Skydive Films in Nashville, Tennessee. From the moment he walked into his first session, Jamie knew he was in the right place for getting into the action.
“The first day, it was an interview for [Zac’s documentary] movie Autism in America,” says Jamie. “He interviewed a parent who has twins with autism. I helped set up lighting.”
Jamie admits he was intimidated at first by jumping into a shoot the first day, especially with some of the unfamiliar lingo—but his mentor made sure he was brought up to speed. “[It was], ‘All right, this is what this means. So next time when you do it, this is how you do it again like that.’ It was a little overwhelming, but it was exactly what I wanted,” says Jamie. “I wasn’t thrown to wolves and just left to die. I was being taught on the set…He was getting me involved, and it got me extremely excited for everything ahead of myself.”
And the involvement didn’t stop there. As Jamie began his apprenticeship, he (along with fellow apprentice Matt Gibson) ended up playing an integral role in the production of Autism in America, which is narrated by Grey’s Anatomy star Chandra Wilson. “I did audio, I did lights, I shot some footage for it that is actually in the film and helped edit it,” he says. “I didn’t edit it myself, you know; it was me, the director and the editor in the room getting it finished. But yeah, some of the shots, some of the B-roll shots I did ended up in the film.”
For his work on the project, mentor Zac Adams tells RRFC that Jamie and fellow apprentice Matt Gibson are receiving Assistant to the Editor credits on Autism In America, which officially premiered last week in Nashville. “Jamie’s resumé is gonna be pretty big when he’s done in a few months,” says Zac, “because he’s done everything from music videos to corporate, to feature documentaries.”
Talk about getting the full experience.
These days, as Jamie finishes up his apprenticeship, he says he’s been working on raising money for a short film of his own, as well as leveraging his newfound skills for income by doing video work for his own clients, which he says has been “going great!” Besides all that, he’s been working with his mentor on yet another feature documentary called Iron Will, an exposé about PTSD which is being narrated by none other than Billy Bob Thornton! Jamie has once again been running audio, and he shares a bit of what it’s been like on the interviews.
“You know, these guys who look tough and everything like that, they kinda break down in the middle of the interview talking about how tough it is over there,” he says. “We’ve gotten some really emotional interviews…It’s hard, I’m running audio, and I’m listening, but I’m also feeling myself tearing up, but I’m like, ‘Oh, I can’t make any sound because that’s just gonna ruin the whole piece!’ So I just try to focus on audio, and it gets tough, but it’s a great thing to be a part of because this documentary is out there help soldiers or veterans find somewhere to go and actually deal with it.”
Jamie decided on the Film Connection because he wanted to learn by getting involved. Today, instead of sitting in a traditional film school classroom, he’s well on his way to a career doing what he loves. “Some people aren’t meant to sit down in classrooms,” he says. I think what sets [Film Connection] apart is that it gets people involved right away. It’s not a sit-down for four years in a classroom. [It’s] ‘This is how you do a shoot. This is a wide shot.’ You’re right in there….that’s what I love about it. Making connections with the people, getting involved, you’re straight into it.”
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