Formed in the fall of 2023, the WeMake Filmmakers club is a place for students of all experience levels at the College of William and Mary to explore their interests in screenwriting, directing, editing, acting and other aspects of filmmaking. Despite the organization being a newer hatch at the College, its members have already produced about fifteen short films posted on their YouTube and website, some of which have won awards at Noetica’s Creative Competition, Amor Film Festival and Ampersand International Arts Festival.
In the fall, the club holds informational meetings teaching new members the basics of filmmaking, from preproduction to postproduction efforts, letting new members test out their skills on camera. WeMake’s president, Reagan Pyle ’26, said that giving related exercises with the club’s lectures provides valuable hands-on experience.
“For instance, for our cinematography lecture, we have the members split into groups to film their own scenes that include different required shot sizes and camera movements so they can learn how different shots and movements flow together,” Pyle said in a message to The Flat Hat.
Along with in-depth cinematography training, WeMake has interactive meeting activities to get members familiar and comfortable with the filmmaking process. For example, the One Scene Challenge is exactly what it sounds like: the members must portray a story in just one short scene with examples ranging from 15-60 seconds. Another activity is the Two-Shot Cinematography Challenge, where a video can only show two camera perspectives, yet still tells a comprehensible story. The club also runs a Valentine’s Day Rom-Com Challenge, where members filmed comedic, sometimes bizarre stories (like an alien love story) with a romantic plot point. Students with limited experience making short films have an opportunity to test out different modes or genres of storytelling with these challenges, including silent films, drama, horror and comedy.
These active learning lectures set up members for endeavors in the spring, when short film production actually begins and finished projects have the opportunity to be screened at the Ampersand festival hosted by the City of Williamsburg. Additionally, the club holds a script showcase in the fall, where screenwriters and directors pitch script ideas that club members vote on. The selected few are screened at the festival if successfully executed.
Pyle said WeMake is on track to produce six short films this spring.
“This is always the most chaotic part of the semester, but it’s also the most exciting since the members finally get the chance to put their skills and knowledge to the test and make their films,” Pyle said in a message to The Flat Hat.
One of the most formative and essential steps of the filmmaking process is crafting an engaging, intelligible and achievable script. For WeMake, the script showcase is a helpful platform for screenwriters and directors to see their imaginative concepts come to fruition in the spring. Members of the club describe the scriptwriting process for short films as a particularly unique type of storytelling, with some saying it is an easier process than full-length, and others saying it requires a lot more flexibility.
“Writing for short films is different because you can often just go straight ahead and with little planning, whereas with feature length, you need much more planning, reading, how the film is structured. But once the script is written, it is up to the director, whether that is you or another person, to interpret the written words in whichever way they want,” Activities Director Lana Tobiczyk ’27 said.
On the art of short filmmaking, Pyle noted the challenges of condensing a meaningful story and operating on a limited budget.
“I think the short film medium is greatly underappreciated. It’s definitely a lot harder than it seems. It’s already difficult to make a strong story in 90-120 pages; it’s so much harder when you are limited to 10. Short filmmaking, especially low-budget filmmaking, comes with a very unique set of challenges, but that’s part of what makes it so fun. You have to be flexible and innovative to come up with creative solutions to accomplish your goal,” Pyle said in a message to The Flat Hat.
In an age when remakes, biopics and live-action reimaginings are more common than ever in the movie-making industry, writing an original story requires a stroke of creativity and inspiration. For a few creatives in the club, scripts come to them while doing ordinary things like taking a walk or sitting in class. They sometimes reach revelations while sleeping.
WeMake’s productions are highly individualized, with little influence of the club entity in the process unless directly involved with editing, writing or crew work.
“Last year, I put my skills to the test and wrote a short film for the Ampersand International Arts Festival. This comedic story was called ‘Second Chance,’ and it followed a college student, Miles, who gets stuck in a time loop until he passes his math exam,” Connor Murray ’28 said. “The idea came to me after receiving a poor exam grade and wishing to myself to replay the day. And just like that, I had my story, and the fact that I was able to collaborate with so many amazing filmmakers on this project to get it on the big screen has been a life long goal.”
Pyle added that filmmaking has made her a more observational person, seeking inspiration from everyday life to include in a future project.
“It’s amazing how easily a simple event or joke can spiral into something so much more. For instance, the film that I am working on right now, ‘Breaking and Entering,’ was actually initially inspired by my nasty habit of sleeping through my alarms,” she said in a message to the Flat Hat.
Many productions from WeMake members touch on topics that the average young adult, especially in college, could relate to. For example, “Bedrot,” a short film written by Jarius Alexander ’25 and directed by Kornel Tyler ’25, follows a teenager who is heartbroken after misinterpreting that their partner ended things, and copes by bed-rotting, except their limbs are literally rotting away to the bone. The short film was an award winner at Noetica’s Film Competition run by the Noetica Journal of Global Premodern Studies. Another film, “Forever A Never,” had several festival placements and was written and directed by Tatiana Coleman ’25, the club’s founder.
“I was the primary editor on the film with the director, Tatiana Coleman,” Tobiczyk said. “It was incredibly fun to have everybody so dedicated to a film whether the actors, PAs and any other members of the crew.”
It has only been two years since WeMake Filmmakers’ inception, and they are always on the lookout for new talent to rely on. Pyle hopes to see the training meetings include skill-building beyond directing, writing and editing and to include crew roles like lighting or sound design, which filmmakers count on for higher level productions. Despite its limited time around, the organization has made a name for itself at film festivals and creative competitions, and we can only anticipate a brighter future for them this spring.
“For anyone who enjoys film, this club is for you. Each member of the club is unique in their own talents and strengths, and it allows for great collaboration and learning opportunities that you will never regret,” Murray said.
