Dan Westcott
BFA in Film & Media Arts
Senior, expected graduation Fall 2021.
From a young age, I was captivated by the unknown feeling of escapism while watching a science-fiction movie. This feeling that allowed me to explore new worlds and outrageous circumstances, pushed me into filmmaking since my freshman year of high school. Since then, I’ve fostered courses and experiences that have helped me explore celluloid, digital, and virtual productions; I have personally stapled these a trinity, the past, present, and future of film production. My most useful classes being an Independent Study course developed with Prof. Warren Cockerham to compare and contrast celluloid vs. digital production, to advancing my abilities as a storyteller in The Creative Triangle with Prof. Kris Atkinson. These were both hands-on courses that opened my perspective to the beauty behind the filmmaking process and gave me real experience with production.
Being introduced to production courses, even from high school, put me at an unseen advantage. I have been working in Adobe Premiere Pro for close to 8 years now because of it. Editing is like a second language for myself at this point, it’s just not the field I want to explore closely in my career, I’d rather be in a literal field filming a narrative. I find myself enjoying being approached by other students taking Experimental Production at the University of Tampa, the course that first exposed me to celluloid, to offer advice and even re-teach some students how to use a Bolex 16mm camera and light meter. Celluloid may be my specialty, but to keep up with the times I also have advanced knowledge for digital cameras, lenses, camera stabilizers, and set/prop design & construction.
As a 9th generation Floridian farmer, I was raised on “southern hospitality” from birth. Mannerisms that included never gloating to appear humble; this progressed to the point that talking highly about yourself, felt rude and egotistical. I still struggle with this as I advertise my work in film production, I often misrepresent and even downplay myself and my abilities as a filmmaker, usually through a self-deprecating joke. My humor is not the most uplifting and can often times be concerning, but adds a new perspective for me to view myself and my work, while usually leaving the people surrounding me with a smile. My thought process has adapted to my humor style, I’ve learned that if you can’t laugh and then grow from your own mistakes as a student, how will you work past your shortcomings as a professional? My time as a student at the University of Tampa has greatly advanced my professional skill set as a creator. I realize now that I am competent in my profession and ready to start taking myself seriously, showing the world what I am capable of, rather than gloating about it.
If there is one thing I have learned from science-fiction cinema, it’s that our futures are still unwritten, it’s what we make of it. With my education from the University of Tampa, I plan to pursue a full-time career in cinematography for narrative production. I’ll do this by finishing my last semester studying virtual production with Prof. Greg Perkins and then vigorously searching for camera operator positions on sets or attending graduate school for my MFA in Cinematography. I have been given the opportunity of exploring celluloid, digital, and virtual production while in Tampa and plan to continue working with all three production methods, exploring the possibilities of blending the past, present, and future of filmmaking throughout my work as I advance in my career.