Chelsy Jensen

“The first couple weeks, my mentor had me right away building my website, getting business cards, connecting me with some people through email so that was a great opportunity and then he had me reading scripts and then once I really found the script that I felt really strongly about I contacted Tom, my mentor, we wrote up an auction, we had a couple of writers sign up and then from there I was posting jobs on Craigslist, on any website that I could find and he actually had another director that he had worked with so we interviewed with a couple directors and we ended up going with Steve. Once we found the director that’s when we started breaking down the script and finding the locations and props and contacting make up artists and sound guys and we did that all throughout the program for the six months and then once everyone was hired and we got the budget from Kick Starter and family and friends we set a date. We started doing auditions and I really enjoyed that, that was one thing I really liked, posting the rolls on LA casting and having people submit their profiles and deciding who will be perfect for the roles and actually having the auditions and then we set a date and it was about the last three weeks we actually sent out call sheets and then we had the shoot and it was really great. It was actually budgeted for $3,000 and we came in under so we didn’t even spend quite half of what we budgeted, so that was something I think that really made me feel strong for being a producer because of the fact that I did come in at half of what the budget was supposed to be so I just think that doing that made me want to be a producer even more. It was so fun and I really got hands-on which is something that I really like to do is be hands-on and get involved and so I just think that really made me think this is what I want to do, there is nothing else in this world that I can see myself doing.”

Joining the Film Connection Film Production program “… made me work harder because I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, so I definitely worked harder and it made me more reliable. If someone needs something in a few days I’m going to get it to them in one or two and it made me really organized and more prepared and I think that really helped work with people and I like getting connections and meeting new people and things like that. I think going to the program I got a little bit of everything so it shows me what parts of filmmaking interest me more than others.”

“I just can’t see myself doing anything else but being in the film industry. I think it really helped graduating with a business degree which made me do more of the producing side and then really interested me just doing every aspect starting from the beginning to the end not just doing one specific thing in the film industry but finding the script the budget the schedule hiring the people and doing everything.”

“I really wanted to start with schooling just so that I have some experience. I didn’t want to just jump into an internship and not really know at all what I was doing and so that’s really why I delved into going to school and looked into finding internships afterward.”