(Photo courtesy of Filmmaker President Jaclyn Leest) “UMass Lowell Filmmakers and Multimedia Club take a selfie at Asian Night, one of the events they filmed.”
Kyra Barry
Connector Editor
One of UMass Lowell’s many notable clubs, the UMass Lowell Filmmakers and Multimedia Club meets every Tuesday at 7pm in McGauvran 312 to provide a space for individuals to appreciate filmmaking and multimedia art.
Jaclyn Leest who is a philosophy major with a concentration in communications and critical thinking, with a digital media minor, is the co-president and became part of the e-board shortly before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She kept it alive during the rough period where classes were off-campus and the subsequent slow removal of COVID safety measures which caused a lot of clubs to struggle. “Now we have a full e-board and we have over 100 members on Engage.”
The Filmmakers Club can be contacted to film events for other clubs and for the UML community. “We helped Difference Maker with a film or with a project that needed to be recorded. We filmed Asian Night for the Asian Students Associations. We made a music video for music students on campus. And we plan to do more.”
Next semester the club plans to host a film festival for the UMass Lowell community. Students of any background and expertise may enter a film into the position. Leest said, “There’s many different categories like short films and animations, documentaries.” She encourages all students, regardless of expertise, to apply. “It doesn’t have to be professional, it could be something silly.”
The Film Festival is planned to be held at either UCrossing or on South Campus in April. Leest said “Please come to the Film Festival and definitely spend winter break. If you really are interested, spend winter break planning and maybe shooting a film so that you could submit it and have it done by hopefully April, ‘cause that’s when we’re planning as a Film Festival.”
Students who join will get experience filming for different events that the UMass Lowell community needs coverage of. “You get to film events on campus. You get to increase your writing skills, increase your knowledge on video editing and camera operation and video editing is very marketable fields right now.” Leest says that “Every business needs a video editor, so if you learn a little bit from that like you can, you can turn it into a job.” The Filmmakers Club even takes in students interested in photography since UMass Lowell doesn’t have its own independent photography club. In addition to filming events students get to take photos.
Even for those who aren’t strictly interested in entering the film field, it has other benefits, “Also you can help with the planning of a Film Festival. It would look really nice and you can get community service hours.” Students interested only in the topic of film can get a lot of benefit from certain Filmmaker Club events. “If you’re really interested in film or interested in movies we have fun discussions on films and showings of films, especially around Halloween time or holiday time where we show holiday films.”
“So now that I have a whole e-board and it’s not just me helping everyone, which is really nice, we teach a lot of students who don’t have time to take digital media classes, how to edit, how to operate a camera, we talk about film, we talk about writing for film and writing for television.” Leest expressed enjoying that it’s a more social environment than the digital media classes. “You learn stuff that you learn in digital media classes, but in the club and you do it by talking to your friends about films.” Leest said, in regard to the activities and environment of the club, “And genuinely we have a fun time.”
