Filmmaking is a format that some students love to be a part of, and here at Hilbert College, it’s something that the Digital Media And Communication departments’ students love to get involved with.

This year, there are some new updates to the studio room for filmmakers to look forward to with making their own films. Andrew Wozniak, a filmmaking DMAC student who will be leaving after the fall semester to fully commit to his field, said filmmaking can be fun and lead to a bright career.

“I started as concentrated in marketing, nowhere near filmmaking,” he said. “But, my sophomore year, I changed my concentration to journalism and part of that is doing the multimedia journalism, which is filming, interviewing and putting that into a short film, telling the story that you’re telling. Professor (Chris) Gallant, my advisor, recommended I took [COM 365] to get experience with using Adobe premiere, and just extra experience in making films.”

Wozniak said DMAC students will definitely get experience in filmmaking through the program.

“Yeah, Anything on campus, whether it was COM 365, it was COM 180 I believe, my freshman year where we made a commercial for Ten Lives Club, or helping with Brandon Moran, he was the film guy and I worked on a couple of commercials with him as of last year. Experience is key when you’re trying to build up a career.”

Now that this is Wozniak’s last semester at Hilbert College, he gave some advice to any new students looking to join the filmmaking program for DMAC students: “Just stick with it. Don’t get behind, because once you’re behind, it’ll pile up. It’s definitely worth it and it’s a good time. I’m looking forward to my future career, whether it’s filmmaking, journalism, or something completely different from there.”

For each semester, there’s something new to look forward to. This semester, Hilbert’s DMAC professor, Gallant, said advances are being made in the film studio in Paczesny Hall.

“We have finished the video production studio, which is a sound stage that people can record inside and that there’s set lighting. We got some new lights, we made it a black box studio setting, which is really helpful for individual filmmaking projects,” he said.

Gallant said the department is always working to update equipment and facilities for students.

“We also have a lot of great equipment for students to use, we do have a new Panasonic cinema camera that is Netflix approved,” he said. “We just taped  a remake of the short film, Lights Out, with that camera.”

Gallant said many students who’ve been through the filmmaking program have gone on to have successful careers in their own ways.

“Yeah. We absolutely do have students do [film and production],” he said. “Probably the most notable student that we’ve had go through our program, go into the filmmaking industry and is working in there right now is Tom Wills. He has the designation of being a member of the society of camera operators.”

He also mentioned Ryan Fleet, who works in commercial production.

With filmmaking at Hilbert, there seems to be a future that Gallant is excited about.

“Students have entered their films in film festivals and even won in the past,” he said. “People have entered films from our program and production work outside their program. Now that we’re back and in person, I think we will be moving back to doing [production]. It’s my goal to try to enter the films that we produce in COM 365 and 375 to short film festivals.”