For her senior project, senior Rebecca Saladino chose to take a deeper look into the film industry as well as learning how to make films. She said, “The reason I chose this topic is because my main career goal is to study film in college and eventually become a director.”

Rebecca plans to take this project on by doing a number of things including conducting interviews with those in the film industry, researching film-making, and making her own short films.
“I am going to interview five people who all take part in the film industry as either writers, directors, actors, or cinematographers. Then I’m going to make a couple of short films of my own: one before the interviews and one after the interviews, and after I do some research, to see what I’ve learned and how I’ve improved over the course of the year. Then I’m going to get the professionals’ feedback on both.”
Although this sounds like a daunting task, Rebecca is well on her way with the help of her aunt. “My aunt helped me get the contact information of the people interested in participating in my project.”
So far, Rebecca has already completed three of her five interviews and has done her first short film.
She said she still needs to conduct the last two interviews and get the feedback from those she interviewed, as well as plan and complete the second film.
Rebecca said, “I’m most concerned about the short film that I’m going to be working on in early 2021. I have already completed one short film, but I have no idea what I want to do for the second one yet.”
COVID-19 has been another hurdle for many seniors in completing their senior projects, but Rebecca said this has not necessarily been the case for her project.
“COVID-19 has not had a huge impact on my project because I didn’t start planning until spring 2020, but I was going to conduct my interviews in person and work with some other people to complete my short films. However, now I’m conducting my interviews on Zoom and working on my films by myself mostly.”
Although her project is to help her grow as a filmmaker, it has also been beneficial to those she has interviewed. “My aunt told me that her friends are always looking for young people with a great passion for film to mentor so, hopefully, the interviewees will benefit in that sense.”
With this Senior Project, Rebecca also hopes she can create opportunities for herself as a future director.
“I’m hoping my project will confirm my passion for film and help me get my foot in the door by building some knowledge, experience, and contacts.”