Joseph Thomas

BFA in Film and Media Arts

Expected Graduation in 2023

Never, as a child, was the future I wanted to have ever in doubt. Film and video media have always been my greatest fascination, and essential to understanding the modern world. As I became older, my interest grew into an urge to translate my own vision onto the screen, just had so many other artists and filmmakers had done before me. My aspirations and ideas were as clear in my head as the pictures on the television screen that allured me. I began by creating LEGO stop-motion animations with a home video camera when I was only about 7-years-old. My parents had a fold-out table set up for me in our house’s basement, where I’d create a small LEGO town with a single street, with buildings, cars, and figures scattered about. It was my own world, and I knew that with a video camera, I believed I could create anything I wanted. I have never stopped believing that.

A large part of my identity and art stems from my personal challenges in the world and the perception I gain from them. I am a person who is on the autism spectrum, so ironically I have always found trouble communicating with other people while excelling in English and art courses. This becomes even more ironic when dealing with dyslexia and ADHD. Though, being undiagnosed with any of these as a child and teenager only drew me more into pursuing the only avenue I felt not only safety but confidence. As a freshman in high school, I began re-editing movie trailers and creating music videos with footage available online. It came so naturally to me that I didn’t understand why people I showed the videos to were so surprised with what I was able to do with re-arranging video clips in iMovie on a school-provided MacBook. It wouldn’t be until I was out of high school that I would hear that one of my favorite music artists, Billie Eilish, has synesthesia, a phenomenon of experiencing mental imagery and other senses in response to audial stimuli. For that, I believe that while my personal challenges may hold me one step back as an individual, they also offer me two steps forward as an artist.

Where I do struggle as an artist and filmmaker is knowing when to stop and be alright with was I have made. For I see filmmaking as no different than any other form of art, such as a painting, a novel, or an essay. I see a body of components, carefully constructed with purpose and meaning. I like to see my projects through every stage of development from inception to completion. I can always see a fine-tuned, perfect version in my head that I try so desperately to emulate, but I have experienced the consequences of what becoming fixated on one endeavor can bring. Though with the teachings and guidance of professors such as Warren Cockerham, Aaron Walker, Dana Plays, and many others at the University of Tampa, I have learned to better navigate through these creative, cognitive pitfalls, and to make my vision and voice known regardless of what my own doubt would lead me to believe.

After graduating, I hope to make an impact in the film industry and online community as both an artist who creates according to their own vision and works on large-scale production at any level. My goal is not to become a wealthy man, but an authentic one who is able to communicate with the larger world, speaking beyond the limits of speech.