Welcome to a 13-part special series for Alumni Live: The Podcast.

These are conversations with Grand Valley State University film and

video students, faculty, and alumni about the film and video major.

When I graduated, a lot of my reel was stuff that I did in clubs at Grand Valley.

What are some clubs that are out there now?

Ariel, I see you just joined us.

Ariel, you want to tell us about some Grand Valley clubs?

Yeah.

One of the biggest ones that has been my favorite is GVTV,

which is Grand Valley TV.

This is one of the coolest clubs that I've ever been a part of, very briefly,

but it's a 100% student run organization, and they pretty much, they do everything.

They write, they review, produce, and air content, and that content

can range from news, fiction, documentary, even cartoon programs.

And this has been a really-- it's, it's been really fun being to

some of these meetings, 'cause at first, you know, going into this

program, there's a lot of people.

It's a big community.

Everyone's really tight, tightly knit.

So me being kind of like the outsider coming in for the first time, I was

like, okay, I'll try out, you know, GVTV 'cause you know, I'm a film nerd and I,

I kind of want to see what it's about.

But it's such an accepting space.

All the people that are on it are just fun, just well-educated, just

hilarious people that just make it so much fun and they accept you.

They welcome you and you get to film things with these cool people.

I got to be cinematographer for one of the shows that they did.

It was a fiction show, and that was a fun experience working with everybody.

It's just a really cool organization that is, like I said, 100% run by students.

So you really get that hands on experience and just have fun with your

colleagues and just produce content.

It's a great time.

That is so cool to hear that I was in the first generation

of GVTV many, many years ago.

So I'm so glad that it's grown into, into such an organization.

There's not just production clubs, but there's also some clubs where you

can watch things, write about things.

Spencer kind of mentioned some of those.

Are any of you involved in other clubs other than GVTV?

Jordan and I actually founded a club called the Cinematography Club.

And so, both of us love cinematography, both of us kind of wanted to learn

more and start building that community around, which is another point, that if

there isn't a club that you feel like fits you, then you can just start one.

And it's a great way to, you know, meet people.

It also looks great on a resume to say that you started a club.

And a lot of what we do is just sharing information.

We host live events.

We brought in a local west Michigan cinematographer, and he will do

lighting demonstrations with us.

We also brought in professor Joel Potrykus.

We screened one of his films, and then afterward he talked about kind of the

making of, what his process was and kind of creatively, how he designed the look.

a lot of the events we do now are virtual, and obviously here's our website too.

This is where you can see different resources, learn

from stuff, our past meetings.

And yeah, that's just a lot of what we do.

So you're, you're living film, you're breathing film.

You're also doing it for fun.

Tell us a little bit about, you know, sitting down and watching some

movies with, with other students.

Like, what is that experience like on campus?

Yeah, that's great because I feel like I'm not a really niche filmmaker.

And so there's a lot of things I haven't been exposed to, but then so many students

have these knowledge-- have this knowledge of like different films and everything.

And so through the program and through different students and professors,

I've gotten exposed to films that I probably wouldn't have watched otherwise.

And even if I'm not necessarily going to emulate those films in my own

work, I still feel like I've grown as a filmmaker because I've been

exposed to so many different things.

And that's really key is that you need to have like this broader knowledge so

you know what you want to do, right?

Right.

And that certainly helps when you sit down and you're not

sure what to watch on Netflix.

Like I've still got friends from film school where I text and be

like, Hey, what should I watch?

And they'll come right away with like three things that I've never

even heard of and then end up being some of my favorite movies.

So friends with good taste are important.

I got those at Grand Valley.

Cody, tell me about the film academy.

What's that all about?

Yes, I am on the executive board and I'm the treasurer.

And as of 2020, according to our website, the Grand Valley Film Academy

is an on-campus student organization that serves as a platform for students

to showcase their film and video work.

Our goal is to create an unforgettable film festival and ceremony experience.

There's a beautiful red carpet with a beautiful backdrop, and we all will get

together and enjoy what has been produced.

And although most of our submissions are from film students, we encourage

all Grand Valley State University students to participate in the arts.

Some of the categories include with best fiction, best nonfiction, animation, best

music video, best script, and many more.

And these are all like, really great movies.

Like, you know, every year when I get to see them, it's, I'm astounded.

Like these are professional level films that students are turning out.

Right, yeah.

We want to celebrate the work of our fellow students, and we want them to

showcase their work and also have their parents come up, come by or have the

relatives, friends see what they've created and worked so hard to produce.

And so you're on the executive board of, of this.

What does that mean as a student?

Like what, what kind of skills are you using to build these events?

As our board really emphasizes teamwork, we want to create a group that will

get the job done, execute our plans.

And this year, the event could be virtual because of COVID, but we're hoping that

we can actually have an in-person event despite the circumstances that we're in.

What we would really love to create event that is exciting,

fun, and free to network.

Right.

And again, you know, just building those professional skills and it's going to be,

you know, you're going to be so confident if all of a sudden you're, you're emailing

the Sundance film festival and you're like, Hey, like I've got these skills.

They're going to be like, we need those skills.

I'm just so proud of all you students and just achieving so much.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Alumni Live: The Podcast special

series about the film and video major.

Be sure to listen to the next episode in the series and subscribe to our

podcast to hear even more from our alumni as they talk about their work

in different parts of the industry.

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conversations and networking.

Let us know what topics you want to hear our alumni talk about.

The Grand Valley State University Film and Video Alumni Network is here for you.

And we're glad that you're here.

Thank you for listening.