Photo Courtesy of senior Lauren Anderson

  President of San Luis Obispo High School’s film club and senior Ian Hammons has been pursuing his interest in filmmaking since his freshman year of high school. 

  Expressions spoke with Hammons about his involvement and interest in the film club.

Expressions: What sparked your interest in filmmaking?

Film Club President Ian Hammons: Initially I was super into photography. That started from Mr. Roper’s digital photography classes, which I took when I was a freshman. Sophomore year I took my first video production course and I fell in love with it. The fact that I could express my creativity through videos…I just thought it was so cool. And then I got super into it. I put a lot of my films into film festivals and I won a couple of awards and yeah, that’s where I am now.

Expressions: How would you describe film club?

Hammons: We basically encourage students to make their own short films and then enter them into primarily local film festivals. We also like to watch a lot of movies. As directors, we like to provide input on each other’s films. Film club is kind of like a resource for filmmakers. If you are making a film and need an actor, members of the film club can act in your movie. So it’s a resource in that way. We also provide technology like cameras and stuff to record films.

Expressions: Would you recommend someone with little experience to submit a film to a festival?

Hammons: Yeah, it’s honestly a really wide range. There’s a lot of local festivals that encourage students that are in high school, freshman to senior, with very limited experience to submit their films. It’s more just expressing your creativity. And there’s festivals that acknowledge all types of skill levels. So it really just depends.

Expressions: Do you prefer acting or filmmaking? 

Hammons: I don’t really act but a lot of my friends will act in my movies, and I’ll just try to get them as comfortable as possible. It takes a lot of teamwork to produce something because the actors, directors, producers, and the editors all have to work together and be very coherent in order to produce something pretty special. 

Expressions: What do you like about being president of the club? 

Hammons: One thing I like is that I can inspire others. At film club, I feel like I share a lot of my techniques and the things that I do to make my films. I’m able to kind of show people how I do it so that they can produce something themselves. In that way, I like inspiring them. I really try to motivate others to produce their own films and make it special to them.