By Dustin Staggs

Fayetteville native Aaron Logan, 22, recently took a leap of faith, bidding farewell to the monotonous confines of his full-time job, to pursue his lifelong passion: filmmaking.

Once a kitchen manager, Logan now pursues creating short films. The decision to leave his full-time job was not one out of confidence, Logan said, but a mixture of anger and dejection. 

“I wasn’t happy,” Logan said. “I’ve climbed up a corporate ladder before; it wasn’t as fulfilling as I thought it would be. There’s just nothing like doing things that are my own, being my own boss, going out there, and creating my own opportunities.”

Logan said he’s always been considered a creative person, starting with music, yet he’s always been drawn to creative writing and developing his own worlds.

In the past couple months, Logan said he’s been getting into modeling and acting through the agency Ozark Talent Bank, which has introduced him to the film community and peaked his interest in short films. 

TikTok has been the main introduction to short-form content and inspired a younger generation about the possibilities of creating their own cinematic short-form content. 

Apps like TikTok and the feature Instagram Reels, have their own editing capabilities and even enable the production of simple effects such as green screening. This encourages beginners to pick up the fundamentals of filmmaking without requiring expensive editing and effects tools. 

The University of Arkansas is also fostering this passion for filmmaking with its annual 24-Hour Film Festival which took place March 8 and 9. The event put on by the University’s Film Honors Society gives students the opportunity to create their desired short film and present it at the festival to win a prize.

Alfredo Perez, a junior mechanical engineering major from Rogers, won best line for his short film “Amber.”

Perez used both days to put his film together and said it was challenging because this was the first time he’d ever put his vision out in the world to be seen and judged by others. 

After going to last year’s festival, Perez said he set aside time on his calendar to really focus on this year’s event. Creating these short films as a creative outlet is something he wants to continue to pursue. 

“It challenges me to have to express myself and defend my vision, and I have to say what I want and know what I want,” Perez said. “Because if you don’t know what you want, then you won’t get what you want. Your vision will just kind of be led forward by something else.”

The University of Arkansas’ Film Honors Society is a student-led group that promotes film culture and education among aspiring filmmakers. The community provides a platform for students interested in all parts of filmmaking, such as cinematography, direction, scripting, editing, and more. 

The society serves as a supportive environment for students interested in the visual medium, providing chances for networking and developing their creative expression. Members can interact with the provided screenings put on by the society, along with seminar talks joined by expert filmmakers and faculty members of the university.   

Rileigh Jamison, a sophomore storytelling and multimedia journalism major, was also in attendance at this year’s festival and won second place for her short “Dog Park.” 

After college, Jamison is looking to go into videography or film and is still trying to figure out exactly what that looks like. She said she is trying to take advantage of all of the opportunities on campus, to try and figure out specifics on what she would like to do after college. 

Jamison and her partner, Lily Eisold, entered the competition to get out there and work on their videography and editing skills. They put together a fun little short film—nothing serious, they said—and had a fun time.

“I think that, especially with how media is changing, people are getting more and more comfortable with short-form content,” Jamison said. “I think it’s important if you’re trying to create art that you’re also following what people are willing to consume, and I think videography and just film in general is a really cool outlet to share a lot of different things like stories, passions, and ideas, but also just important messages.”

Jamison and Eisold are now working on a passion project about the expectations placed on women in our society. 

“We really fell in love with when you’re in videography, you have full control over what the end product looks like, whereas I feel like some other forms of art, you know, can kind of take a different route and can go a little off what you were expecting it to,” Jamison said. “You really just kind of hold the control of what you want each individual aspect of the project to look like.”

With the visual medium of short films, filmmakers like Logan, Perez, and Jamison are able to create projects that express their message and showcase their creative visions. All of them expressed a passionate interest in continuing to navigate the realm of filmmaking to see what path it takes them on.