Malak Krayem
Film and Media Arts ’21
Junior<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growing up in Saudi Arabia, I had little access to the world of creatives. My curiosity had me creating and editing music videos by the age of 12. However, I had to seek the knowledge outside of my reality and resorted to the world of YouTube, which taught me the base of everything I know today. The world of film that I was entering, regardless of my family’s incredible support, seemed a little foreign in the context in which I lived. But to me, this only meant that it was an open field waiting for me to make the first step into, especially as a woman filmmaker. The only issue here is that there was no one around me to collaborate with, which means I was never solely able to focus on one role in the process of filmmaking. I had to do it all from A to Z, which although taught me a lot, is no simulation of the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coming to The University of Tampa was my breakthrough from that. Being surrounded by filmmakers has finally given me the opportunity to step into the shoes of a single role. But more than often, I find myself gravitating towards being a cinematographer. One reason is that it has been difficult to let myself trust another person with my vision, and the other is that it is the thing I am praised on the most. It is also the thing I have invested the most time in mastering, which means I am skilled at it more than anything else. But when I really think about it, it just might be the last thing I want to do in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I began to recognize the fact that directing is the thing I want to do the most, yet I have never done to its full capacity, I turned to Professor Aaron Walker. Professor Walker has truly been pushing me to places I didn’t know I could go, and no better example of this is when he encouraged me to join his Creative Triangle class. For once, I had no choice but to finally surrender the camera to someone else. And while doing so as a director, suddenly everything made sense. Regardless of my discomfort when seeing another person handle the camera to my written work, I am now one step closer to accepting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The journey from here is to find the people I want to collaborate with for the rest of my life. Which thankfully, there is no better way to do so than in college. I am surrounded with such a diverse group of individuals with so many different interests — some of which I plan to create with for as long as I possibly can. With a dream of being a writer\/director, I wholeheartedly believe that the connections I am making to UT will take me to where I want to go. Not to mention, Saudi is not ready for the breadth of knowledge I am about to bring to their game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"