Sophia Bianchi

BFA Film and Media Arts

Expected Graduation: May 2023

I have always been extremely passionate about storytelling from a young age.  I would always write movie ideas in my notes growing up, but never expanded on those ideas, but I really enjoyed playing with ideas in reality of what could happen.  In high school, I took darkroom photography, and digital photography for 3 years, and loved experiencing life through a different lens.  Darkroom photography was something new to me that I had never experienced.  My grandpa gifted me with my first black and white film camera, a Nikon N75 35mm SLR camera which I had won several awards using.

My family constantly asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I knew I wanted to be creative, but I never knew exactly what.  Going to family gatherings, that was the big question, and after talking to a few of my aunts, I knew I wanted to be in the film industry.  My Aunt Pam is a director and producer for many reality tv shows, and my Aunt Kelly is a location scouter and director for many shows.  After realizing how much I could do in the film industry, I started to look at film schools in Florida.

Coming to the University of Tampa, I didn’t know much about the film industry, or how to even write a script. I have taken all of the possible screenwriting classes that are offered because I thoroughly enjoy storytelling and seeing how a film could be put together from my original story.  I have now written 9 short films, and the first act of a full feature film.  My passion has developed greatly in screenwriting, thanks to Professor Aaron Walker for showing me how to write my first script.  I am currently focused on a comedic script called “The Nurse Practitioner“, and revising previous scripts. Along with screenwriting, I have taken many courses such as narrative, documentary, and experimental filmmaking. I took experimental filmmaking with Professor Dana Plays, and fell in love with this style of filmmaking ever since.  The course reminded me of the freedom I had while screenwriting. While taking these courses I developed a passion in production and have produced over 25 student films in the past two and a half years. With further knowledge of film from these courses, I got to work as an intern for Universal paranormal where I was lead casting director, and production manager on set.  I have also created a marketing video for Blue Ribbon Koi and Marine.  

While I have found my true passion, and worked hard to learn more in depth about the film industry, I do have my weaknesses.  I have always had a hard time in the sound aspect of films and have always found myself producing works that maybe didn’t sound as crisp as I would’ve liked.  Now having worked on sets with others, I pay close attention to how they use sound recorders and mixing in post production.  It is something I need to work on, but have been avidly attempting to further better my understanding of sound.

After obtaining my BFA in film and media arts, I hope to become a writer’s room assistant and work my way up from there.  I want to pitch my scripts to different networks. I would love to stay in Florida, but if any opportunity comes my way, I am willing to travel wherever to get to the ultimate goal of selling my script to a large company and watching my original story pan out.  I am also interested in location scouting for companies, and being a casting director for any company.