Though Northwestern is known for its vibrant arts scene and a multitude of creative outlets for students, the student filmmaking process remains somewhat shrouded in mystery. To shed light on this process, The Daily gained a backstage pass to sit in on the creation of student short films on campus.
Seated shoulder to shoulder in a Louis Hall computer lab, Communication senior and film director Richard Yan and Communication junior and film editor Ashley Qiu spend nearly 40 minutes editing just the brief, opening scene of Yan’s student short film, “What the Heaven!”
Throughout their editing session, the director and editor collaborate over how to dice up and piece together the film, critiquing a shot’s exposure, maneuvering Adobe Premiere Pro and discussing a scene’s background noise. For nearly an hour, the room is filled solely with film jargon, such as “gamma correction,” “nesting sequences” and “room tone.” The dialogue of the opening scene is replayed and rewatched by two sets of fiercely meticulous eyes set on nothing short of perfection.
“Sometimes you have to cut stuff, even though you don’t want to, but sometimes you feel like you should add more,” Yan said, adding that those decisions can be the hardest for a director to make.
From the director’s department to the gaffers, grips, actors, art crew and intimacy coordinators, Yan said there was a tremendous amount of coordination between a vast number of roles and departments working both dependently and independently to execute his vision.
He added, however, that most viewers credit directors, actors and even cinematographers for their contributions to a film’s production, but the vital sound and art crews go underappreciated.
“Sound is super underappreciated. They do so much in making the film sound good,” Yan said. “The next time you watch a film, really notice how good the sound is. And watch a film where the sound isn’t that great. You’ll really notice the difference.”
Not every role in film production is created equally. Qiu, a first-time lead editor, recalled other behind-the-scenes roles in student filmmaking from her previous experiences on other film sets. Having been a member of art crew, production design and script supervision teams, she emphasized that although each role requires creativity in a “different way,” they share an emphasis on being “detail-oriented” roles.
Both behind the scenes and before the camera, the importance of dedication to detail isn’t lost on any component of the set. Grace Petersen (Communication ‘24) said from the set of the student short film “Sisters.”
“For each scene, you’re getting multiple angles that you catch on different actors — different facial expressions,” Petersen said. “A lot goes into it.”
Petersen, an actress in the film, added that even in roles as underappreciated as the gaffer, who specializes in perfecting a scene’s lighting, the attention to detail in every shot is “amazing.”
Yan’s film, “What the Heaven!”, follows a young man who gets a second chance at communicating with his father when his father returns from the afterlife. It’s a film Yan describes as personal and inspired as much by his own life as by some of his formative directorial influences, including YouTuber Ryan Higa and best picture winner “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
He said he hopes audiences will come to see his film once it premieres and leave reflecting on their own relationships with their parents and the finite time they have to change them.
Qiu said she personally shares similar hopes.
“I think it resonates because it’s such an authentic story from Richard’s life and his experiences,” Qiu said. “And I feel like when people watch it, they’ll also resonate with that, too.”
Email: yanajohnson2028@u.northwestern.edu
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