Annie Song is an Art and Design major who has been at GRCC since Spring of 2010. She spent the summer of 2010 at USC taking film classes. When she came back to GRCC after an intense summer of making films and learning the ropes of the film industry, she was inspired to create a film club at GRCC. She has made a valiant effort to bring together students from many different backgrounds and guide them in a common pursuit of film making. The road has been bumpy, as is the case when starting a club from scratch, but GRCC’s film club has successfully completed their first short film, ‘Transmutation’. Next month they are participating in a short film festival in Las Vegas.

This is an interview with Annie, the film’s producer and Dan, the film’s co-producer:

Why did you create the film club at GRCC?

Annie:  I created it because I think that all students who like filmmaking should have the opportunity to be together, sharing their passion.

Dan:  I simply like making movies. I think movies are a powerful platform to present creative ideas and critical points of view to large audiences.

Why are you interested in film?

Annie: I like the feeling of transferring an idea to a motion picture, and watching audiences like it.

Dan:  Film is not only a form of entertainment, but also an educational experience. We can all learn so many beneficial messages or pivotal life lessons from directors or producers…different concepts and different ways of thinking.

What was the film about?

Annie: The film is about Cydnie, a foreign exchange student from England, who is a fully-functioning zombie. Not only can Cydnie operate like a normal human, she goes to school just like one too. She fits in just fine, but there’s only one difference: she has to feed on flesh instead of pizza and tacos. With the help of a friendly werewolf named Fallon, Cydnie embarks on a quest for acceptance at GRCC, growing from a shy and unsure girl to a self-confident and outgoing young woman.

What was your role during the filming?

Annie:  I was the film’s producer. I needed to make sure everything was on schedule and everyone was happy doing what they were doing. I made sure people came together to shoot the film and made sure the different locations where we shot the film were appropriate.

Dan: My responsibility as co-producer was to recruit as many extras as I could to create the diverse club scene as part of our movie. Other than that, I also spent most of my time communicating with other students on campus, who were interested in being composers, actors, and actresses. As a co-producer, I literally assisted the producer and script writer as much as I could by coming up with interesting scenarios for the script and the camera angle.

What did you enjoy about the filmmaking process?

Annie:  Feeling the whole film crew go through changes throughout the process: starting with excitement and then shifting to everyone ‘hating’ each other then back to excitement and everyone liking each other again. I love the process.

Dan:  What I liked about filming was that we had to cooperate with each other a lot, even if we didn’t want to. Even though it was pretty hard to come together, we had fun, especially when we had to shoot outside in the middle of a rain storm! And of course I liked the fact that every single one of our film club members was so dedicated to the project.

What didn’t you enjoy about the filmmaking process?

Annie:  The part when everyone wanted to ‘scratch each others’ faces off’! We became so worried about our time and meeting deadlines…we should have been more organized.

Dan:  The miscommunication between club members and the school board members. Also, we had trouble with time management.

What did you learn from the process:

Annie:  I learned that we should be more organized and more dedicated to teamwork.

Dan:  I learned that filmmaking is definitely not an easy task…that it requires a lot of patience, perseverance, effort and A LOT of collaboration!

How do you think the film will do at the film festival?

Annie:  I don’t know….hopefully well since it’s a small festival.

Dan:  Our script’s writer is awesome, so there’s no doubt that our movie will be a success! However, at the same time, it’s always good to be humble and modest. Even if the film doesn’t do well at the festival, we are satisfied with the fact that we accentuated many strengths of this college in our film. We hope that audiences will be motivated to study at GRCC.

What are your future plans for the film club at GRCC?

Annie:  We will start over with one minute films and approach the filmmaking process step by step, in order to fully comprehend roles, responsibilities and how to be successful. I want us to be more prepared next time.

Dan:  I will always be part of the film club here. I feel lucky to have met and worked with such an amazing group of talented people. I hope to recruit more people to this film club in the future.

What are your future school/career plans?

Annie:  I want to go to USC and excel in the film industry. USC has one of the top filmmaking programs in the world.

Dan:  I am planning to transfer to UCLA or USC…or any other art school associated with filmmaking. I want to be either a story editor or executive producer…and continue to present my creative ideas and points of view to the world through film.