The Film School Kid

Most of the time I don’t talk about my kids. I feel uncomfortable putting them in a spotlight they didn’t ask for. However, I got a call from my daughter that thrilled me. She works full-time and long hours, is out on her own, and supports herself, but she has managed to work her schedule around so that she can also attend film school, (which she’s paying for herself).

She’s been working like wild since the middle of March. In that time, she studied film production, wrote her screenplay, cast her film, directed her actors and shot her film, as well as working various production jobs on other students’ films. She’s discovered that she’s an awesome script supervisor. Her sharp eye for detail lets her catch discontinuities that happen while shooting, like “pen moved from previous shot,” “actor’s sleeves different than previous shot,” etc.. Tiny little details that she can keep in her head. I’m envious as hell — I have to write my characters’ names on a sticky and stick it to my monitor just to get through a novel.

So, anyway. She sent me a picture.

film-kid-film

Two professional digital video cassettes that contain her raw footage. This picture takes my breath away.

She’s been working toward making movies since she was about nine years old. She shot one on her own a couple years ago, but couldn’t produce it — she didn’t have and couldn’t get the necessary equipment. She’s written countless scripts, stories, and book starts. She’s faced huge personal setbacks, and overcome them, and through all of that she’s never given up, never lost sight of her dream, never let the harsh, grueling jobs she held before her current job break her spirit or make her give up. She’s been on her own and self-supporting (and then some, since for a lot of that time she was supporting herself and someone else) since she was nineteen years old, and those two cans of film represent the next step in making her dream a reality.

By the time she turns twenty-three, in two months, she will have finished her first movie.

I didn’t complete my first book until I was twenty-five.

My kid. She did this on her own, and I’m incredibly proud.

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8 responses to “The Film School Kid”

  1. Tech Avatar

    How awesome! I’m looking forward to seeing it on the big screen!

  2. NoelFigart Avatar

    Self-supporting and following her dreams… Good for her. Hope to goodness I teach my kids the same thing.

    Well, they’re not going to have much of an option about the self-supporting thing — at least from me *grin*

  3. Chassit Avatar
    Chassit

    Congratulations Holly! And Congratulations to her. She definatly got the creative gene from you.

  4. PolarBear Avatar

    So glad to hear it. This is wonderful news.

  5. Jim Avatar
    Jim

    Congratulations and good luck to her. But take a kudo yourself for being the kind of mother who inspired her to this.

    Never give up on your dreams, always fight for what’s right.
    And NEVER mess with the Mommy. 🙂

  6. BJSteeves Avatar
    BJSteeves

    Holly, you have a right to be proud! And she got that ambition and “stick-to-it-ness from you, her Mom. Somehow, I would expect this.

  7. Krista Avatar

    I can only imagine how you must be feeling. I get excited when the five year old can identify letters in the alphabet. I can’t imagine the rush it must be to see your child accomplish something on such a grand scale.

  8. PJ Avatar

    Wow! This is great news! Tell her congrats and good luck!

    ~PJ~

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