The Magic of Student Film

Updated: Mar 10

By Izzy Schulte

Every filmmaker has to start their journey somewhere, and this beginning is usually found

within a showreel of the first few films they created. Everyone involved in filmmaking has them,

whether it be a shaky, embarrassing 5 minute short where you are 4 roles at once, or it’s a digital relic of the final sprint of university. I have been lucky enough to have been given

the chance to create both.

The stills included are from my final year filmmaking project, ‘Taste of Humanity’, created last

year at Sussex University. After a difficult year & a half- start of a practical degree taken

online, I finally could embark on my first proper student film. ‘Taste of Humanity’ explores what it means to be human, what it means to feel so alive and so alone at the same time. How do we,

as the creators of the machine, distinguish AI from a human? What classes something as

‘human’?

This project is perhaps one of the most special things I have ever, and will ever, work

on. The bubbling energy from each time we met up as a group to plan, write, re-write and shoot was unforgettable. I was blessed with the most wonderful team to create with, and such

superstar actors to bring the story to life. Although we had a limited budget, limited equipment

and in very limited time, we created something so special. Something that we can look back on as one of our first films with laughter and pride.

And that is the magic of student films, people coming together to weave up a whole new world for the first time.