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.

We're going to talk about some of those showcases that students show their films.

So kind of paint the picture for us, Julie, what is a showcase?

Well, at the, at the end of the semester, we curate student projects.

So, uh, the showcase work usually centers around the upper level courses.

So, there is, uh, the senior projects course that Kim had mentioned

earlier that students can either take in relation to an internship.

So the senior projects are showcased at the end of the semester when students

are graduating, and then the fiction projects which are collaborative,

and documentary projects, the producing for clients, and then we're

beginning to spatter in some animation projects into the showcase as well.

And we have a very, very nice theater on campus where we're

able to show all of this.

Right, and so you're not just making stuff for class, you're

making these for an audience.

Like that's, it's a packed house, right?

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely a packed house.

And its student-- and students are involved in coordinating the event.

They usually create some sort of scenario where there's a host and a little

bit of skits in between, and we've had slates showing students talking

about the production of their work.

So we design a poster for it.

So it, we try to create a sort of film festival environment.

And the GV academy is, is a great supplement to what we do with the

showcases, because that is like they were saying, a student run club, but this is a

little bit more departmental coordination.

Kim, when you sit there and you're a professor looking at these students'

work, who, you know, maybe just a few months earlier at the beginning of

the semester, you know, couldn't even hold a camera, what do you, what do

you feel when you watch those films?

Well, I have the great pleasure of teaching media one, which is the very

first class that these students take.

And then I teach senior projects or capstone, and I get to see the

growth over these four years, and it really is truly astounding.

And, one of the showcases that we have in the winter, probably around

February generally is for, for the less advanced, for media one, media

two, and some 300 level classes.

And we really, the students even put that on, even though it is a departmental

sponsored event, but what they do is they have a student jury really, and they pick

which ones gets best picture, whatever, but they also have an audience award.

It's really spontaneous.

It gets the students kind of ready for that, that more public screening.

Usually we don't have parents and family at those events where we do at the others,

and like Jordan had mentioned earlier that we get all dressed up for those showcases

at the end of the semester, and, uh, the parents come in and there's a program.

Julie mentioned that the students make a program and we get it printed.

So they have a little souvenir.

It's, it's really quite an event,

Ariel as a filmmaker, right before your, your movie shows, what are you thinking?

What are you feeling?

What is that moment right before your movie plays?

Oh man, it's a little like nerve-wracking because you've worked like so hard on

this project and you know, you've seen it on a computer screen the entire

time, just editing it and just really being really, really close to it.

And right before it goes on, to like when it actually shows like the opening scene,

it's out there, it's on a huge screen.

Everyone's looking at it and you, you can't help, but feel just a tiny bit like

vulnerable, like, okay, everyone's looking at my work, but everyone is so accepting

and they, you know, they support you and it's just, it's a good supportive crowd.

So when your movie's actually shown, people clap, like, okay, that was awesome.

That was a really good, you know, it's a, it's just a good experience

to get your film out there.

Yeah, just seeing it like that is a, it's a, it's just a cool feeling because all

that hard work that you put into it, and just like seeing it on the big screen.

You get to see other people's work too.

So that's, yeah, it's just a good time.

It's really nerve wracking, but it's definitely worth

it seeing on the big screen.

And Josh, you know, pulling people together for it and a big event like

this, you know, beforehand, a lot of times there's, you know, you got,

you got some cheese out there, right?

You got your, your little cracker, you know, and you're doing a networking.

Tell us a little bit about that networking that happens at events like this.

I actually haven't been able to go to a showcase myself, unfortunately.

The first one I got to go to was virtual last semester.

So that was really disappointing, but, you know, being at events like that,

and being able to just kind of talk with professionals and feel the energy of all

of that, and also just being in a space like that with your classmates is such

a good feeling because these are the people that you have been working with

all semester, or, you know, you know their projects, you know what they were doing,

and now like you're about to actually see the final version for the first time.

It's just such a cool thing to be a part of and to be a part of this

whole big group all around you.

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.

Check out Alumni Live on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for more

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.