The Film Department as SHSU has demonstrated a budding program fast developing into a premier portion of the Mass Communications Department.
The department is establishing a number of programs and practices that are attracting more talent. The developments are creating numerous legitimate indie film makers, and this week SHSU Creates spotlights one such director, Mass Communications sophomore Trevor Boyd.
“When I was a kid I loved watching the bonus features on DVDs, I liked watching the making of,” Boyd said. “It was always cool seeing what happened behind the scenes, I was like ‘Man how do you do that? I want to do that!’”
Boyd got his first opportunity to try his hand at film in high school. Now he works during the summer as an intern in the film division at his church.
“I started with this really awesome film program back in high school,” Boyd said. “Then I went through the whole process and got the internship with the church program, and I have been there every summer since.”
Toward the end of this summer, Boyd’s boss made him an offer.
“[He] gave us the opportunity to make a short film by the end of the summer, the only problem was, he told us this with only like three weeks left in the summer,” Boyd said.
From there it was a whirlwind of ideas and concepts, two interns racing to complete a project with near to no direction.
“We cycled through like five ideas, we would work with one and it would be too complicated, so we would pair it down, and then we would have to move on when it wasn’t happening,” Boyd said.
In the end, Boyd decided to focus on a central narrative, a single conversation between two characters on a bridge.
“July 22nd is the name of the film,” Boyd said. “Pretty much the whole process was me and my fellow intern, Grayson Blackburn who goes to UT, we co-wrote the story. I directed [the video] while he directed photography.”
Boyd said that he went into the film making process with a vision of what he wanted and on the day of filming, the weather was corporative with them.
“Luckily the day we were filming the sky looked exactly the way I wanted it,” Boyd said. “Since in film making you shoot everything in a very neutral light, Grayson was able to play with it until we got it where we wanted.”
After production the duo had produced a 12:52 short film that inspired even longer conversation.
“My bosses got into a 45-minute argument about the ending,” Boyd said. “We actually just this past weekend filmed a new ending.”
Boyd said he was very pleased with the actors’ performances.
“I was really proud of their relationship and how it was unpacked in the script,” said Boyd.
In the future, Boyd plans to continue writing the scripts and then directing the projects.
Some directors that have influenced Boyd include Christopher Nolan and Edgar Wright.
“I love Christopher Nolan,” Boyd said. “He has definitely been one of the most influential directors on my personal style. I also love Edgar Wright, I love his style. I really appreciate his work on the other end of the spectrum, from what Nolan does.”
Boyd talks about his own personal favorite types of films.
“I love films with cool concepts that keep you thinking after the fact,” Boyd said. “I love movies that know what they want to say and accomplish it efficiently.”
Trevor has high hopes for the future, thanks to the programs at Sam he has a good idea of what it will take to be successful.
“Eventually I would love to get into feature length films,” Boyd said. “Due to being a college student with a limited budget and resources, you have to make do with what you have, which can still produce some pretty awesome stuff.”
Boyd acknowledges that the film society organization has great events like competitions where you can enter scripts and screenings of movies.
“There’s a really great program we have in Mass Comm with the film society,” Boyd said. “They’ll have a bunch of good things to get into.”
Film students are encouraged to submit their projects. Some students even get the opportunity to attend film festivals.
“Also they will go to film festivals where you can do meet ups with really cool people while in an awesome film centric environment,” Boyd said.
If you want to check out July 22 Trevor has a Vimeo page under his name, also be sure to check him out on Facebook. If you or someone you know would like to be featured on SHSU Creates, email us at campusculture@houstonianonline.com.