Student's film selected for national festival

Since high school, Becca Freimuth has been interested in producing video, but it wasn’t until the Fall 2014 Klipsun class that she crossed the barrier into creating something that was completely hers in both inspiration and interest.

When working alone on a video project “there is a sense that it’s going to be made how you want it to be made because it’s all your vision,” said Freimuth, a visual-journalism student at Western.

Her nine-minute film “Keeping Focus,” which she produced entirely on her own, was chosen to be showcased at the 2015 National Film Festival for Talented Youth on April 25. NFFTY is a non-profit arts organization that showcases and promotes the work of emerging directors ages 24 and younger. The documentary is one of 200 videos that will be shown at the festival later this month.

“Keeping Focus” follows the stories of three Northwest photographers who choose to pursue the art of film photography in a digital age. The main subject, Kathryn Stevens, is a wedding photographer in Seattle who chooses to use film for the aesthetic that can’t always be obtained through digital photography, Freimuth said.

During her time shooting and editing the video, Freimuth was inspired to shoot film herself, which she hopes one day to have the opportunity to do, and has seen that influence in people who have seen her film.

“I made a video that is actually telling a story that is encouraging or inspiring people to do something,” Freimuth said. “I think that’s why it’s one of my favorite videos that I’ve made so far.”

During the upcoming summer quarter, Freimuth will be interning at KCTS-9, Seattle’s public broadcasting station, creating video-content for “Earthfix,” which is focused on local environmental issues. She will be working under “Earthfix” producer Katie Campbell, who interviewed her for the internship and was a judge for NFFTY.

In a pre-interview email, the subject of NFFTY came up, and out of 800 films submitted to NFFTY, Campbell remembered watching Freimuth’s piece and giving it high marks.

“It was an honor to have someone in the industry say that about my work,” Freimuth said. “It brought tears to my eyes.”

Although Campbell was a judge at NFFTY, Freimuth doesn’t believe the film weighed heavily on her obtaining the internship. She credits the Western journalism department for giving her so many opportunities and resources to expand her portfolio.

“I think it’s my portfolio that got me the internship,” Freimuth said.

Freimuth is currently the executive producer of Viking Television, a news video production club on campus, and has been a part of the organization since her freshman year. She attributes her continued interest in film to her work with VTV throughout her time at Western.

Freimuth credits the success of “Keeping Focus” to VTV and to the storytelling skills she obtained through the WWU journalism department.

This quarter, Freimuth will be expanding on her documentary through an independent-study course so she can continue to improve her video-production skills. This new film will focus on Kathryn Stevens from “Keeping Focus” while she works to create digital filters that mimic effects of film.

“Photographers in the digital age are still trying to bring film aesthetic into their work even though it’s dying out because it’s expensive and takes a lot of time,” Freimuth said. “So that is what I’m exploring now.”