As my first week of classes began, my professors always ask their students "Why they are taking the class?" and "What made you decide to study film?"
This is a question that stumps me every time I am asked. There are so many different reasons as to why I wanted to study film and media, and in all honesty I could write a whole thesis paper about my love for film. But for now, I'll explain everything in a short article to save all of you some time.
My love for film goes back to my freshmen year of high school. I'm not sure of how it clearly started, but I think it had something to do with the Oscars. And if you know the Oscars, you know how they screw over some great films and reward those that can be mediocre.
By then, I wanted to learn more about how all of these films were made. What was the story behind all of them? How long did it take to film the movie? And what made these movies so special to the people that love them?
Even before high school, I was always fascinated by films when I was a little kid. The Wizard of Oz was always a go-to film for me. The whole fantasy world of Oz captivated me as a child. Evil witches, ruby slippers that magically sent you home, and tiny munchkins that ran the town, I longed to be in a world like Oz.
As the years went by, my taste for film grew. The wonderful world of Oz now became to outer space world of Star Wars. Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings series also became a favorite of mine. I even started to watch more thrillers and horror movies like The Silence of the Lambs and The Exorcist.
Of course what 20 year old would I be without openly admitting my love for Disney films and everything that Disney has done for my childhood.
And what kind of Italian-American would I be without knowing every word to The Godfather trilogy and Goodfellas.
When it came time to picking what I wanted to study when I went to college, I had two things to choose from: study film or study weather (I was obsessed with weather as a kid). I picked schools to study meteorology, but that never worked out in my favor. I did leave one choice for me when studying film, and Buffalo State happened to be the school that took me in.
Here I learned the history of how film worked, how it is adapted from literature to the big screen, and everything that goes into the film as a whole. Though I am studying broadcasting as a major, I took film as a minor so that I wouldn't pass up on something that I have loved since I was a kid.
Never stop doing what you love. If you love what you do, keep on going! Who knows, you may wind up in a career that you have been dreaming of all of your life.
