It’s a frightening episode of To a Certain Degree! Not really, it’s just an episode of TACD that is on Halloween. But, the playlist is Halloween-related! Again, sort of.
Be that as it may, many years ago, all the way back in an innocent time known as 2010, Stefanie Esquijarosa started down a path of cinematic training. Movie literacy. Silver screen schooling.
She founded, with a bit of help, the Florida Film Academy, following her passion for teaching people how to tell stories through video and film. Starting with just one summer camp, FFA has grown to two locations and year-round classes.
There are some great takeaways from this episode if you’re thinking of going out and starting your own business. For example, Stefanie and company ran their concept to allow for customer feedback and to hone the curriculum. And, like some of us are shooting for, it’s a labor of love, something she doesn’t even consider a job.
Links of note:
0:00 – Welcome Stefanie! We get to know this Florida Film Academy director with a game of Stars or Stripes.
5:47 – “You were about to get haunted big-time.”
7:17 – “Except for Titanic. I would have preferred to have seen a bunch of stuff of just the boat crashing.”
11:24 – “Speaking of cuteness and the Disney Channel. Professional wrestling. That’s on the Disney Channel, right?”
14:44 – “You all are obviously vampires, and we hate you.”
19:32 – Stefanie discusses how FFA got its start. It was a much more innocent time, 2010.
23:02 – “She’s been an incredible role model for me, growing in this industry and learning first-hand from somebody that does this every single day.”
28:30 – “I was going down the path of being a news reporter.”
32:53 – “What got you to overcome the fear of failing?”
35:08 – “Take your college fund. Make a movie. But it’s got to be at least as successful as Clerks.”
39:04 – “I guess the scariest thing would then be a roach dressed up as a clown.”
40:45 – Bad Business Ideas™ are here to stay! Snappy Campers and Amplifire.
42:45 – “Topics include covering your tracks, finding a person’s weak spot, leading through fear, ninja throwing stars, fun pranks to play, arts and crafts, and crushing your enemies.”
44:48 – “Suck it Prometheus, we have one-upped you. You may have stolen fire from the gods, but we are delivering it in 30 minutes or less.”
49:06 – “Maybe you become a better politician because of it. You’re probably not going to create your own email server if you’ve gone to one of our camps.”
54:10 – College talk with Stefanie. She thought she was going to go one way, and went in a different direction.
59:01 – “It’s always short films. So they’re anywhere between 14 seconds, because there are 14-second film festivals believe it or not, all the way to four or five minutes in duration.”
1:02:36 – Let’s shift from video to audio with some audio designs.
1:03:38 – “You wake up. You’re in a police car. You don’t know how you got there. Suddenly, a piccolo starts playing.”
1:06:24 – Pop quiz, hotshot! I love all bus-related movies.
1:10:21 – “I’ll go with the boxers on the bear.”
