Chapman University is known for producing crop after crop of soon-to-be film makers. With the industry for the taking upon graduation day, the possibilities for outgoing students are endless. One Chapman senior, graduating in the spring of 2015, has a resume most students would do anything for. Kevin Wolf, an aspiring film maker and student success story, is well known at Chapman for his popular YouTube channel. His “This is Chapman” video is a mere handful of views away from the 23,000 benchmark. Check out what he had to say in his Q&A interview below.
What got you into film making?
Music. I love playing music and I noticed that a lot of film making is timing, so that’s what kind of got me into it. And making home videos in high school.
What do you want to do after college?
I want to direct a feature film and own my own production company.
What kind of movies do you want to make?
Well, my favorite movie’s The Matrix. And I like Toy Story and WALL-E. My dream job would be creating stories that create change. Because you can make a film and have it be funny, and nothing happens. But if you can make a film that changes the world somehow, which I think is very possible…that would be my dream.
Any upcoming projects you’re working on?
My thesis is about a dad with ALS. Every time his daughter has to do something difficult, like perform in a ballet recital, he gives her a pinky promise and says something like, “Don’t worry, you’ll be okay.” He keeps doing that over and over again until he gets diagnosed with ALS. Then, he slowly loses the functions of his body. He becomes paralyzed and can’t give the pinky promise to his daughter anymore. Then, she has to start taking care of him, waking up at four in the morning before high school starts to get him out of bed, get his breathing tube on, and do all this stuff. She ultimately gets motivated to do something to change this, and builds a robotic arm that hooks up to his brain. Then, at the very end of the movie, they get to do another pinky promise.
Which films that you’ve done have been the most popular?
Sophomore year, I entered a contest with my roommates. It was an international music video contest with over 120 submissions, and we won. Then, our video became an official Owl City music video. It’s a good video, but the song that they used is so cheesy. They should have put the video to a different song. Also, one of my junior year films made it to the weekly email at Paramount Studios. So there’s talk about trying to make a sequel to it.
When you get out of college, do you have a specific place that you want to work?
I don’t know yet. But ideally, I really don’t want to live in LA. I work up there now three days a week at Universal Studios in Hollywood, as an intern at NBC. I edit combo videos for Parenthood, The Voice, and stuff like that. It’s just a really busy place and I’m not a huge fan of that. I’d rather live out in the country.
You’re from Ohio. How has growing up there influenced what you do with your movies?
Growing up in Ohio, I always improvised. I love improvising, and I think a good filmmaker knows how to improvise because things always go wrong on set. Things always happen; you have to do this, you have to do that. I think in Ohio the culture is different. If something breaks in your house, you fix it yourself. In LA, it’s like, “Oh, the light broke. Let’s just call an electrician.” The culture and the people in Ohio are very do-it-yourself. Bringing that to film school has been great because a lot of people in film school only know how to do one thing, and they just rely on other people to do other things. I think in order to do well in this industry, you have to know how to do some of everything.
To see some of the ambitious Dodge student’s recent work, check out Kevin’s YouTube channel at the link below: