Film Student Breaks down His Process To Create A New Cinematic World
By: Louis Peritore
For the first day of movie production, Derek Miranda was admittedly nervous about his first time to work in a film setting. However, after many mishaps of laughing in between each take, Miranda grew comfortable in this new avenue he chose as his career.
Even though Cinema Studies may not be the most popular of choices for a major, as datausa.io shows that only 5,858 students were awarded degrees in this category, that didn’t stop Miranda from taking on this endeavour.
Miranda has been wanting to do filmmaking since he was in the 8th grade. Around this time, he watched many more movies and was captivated by each one he saw. Ever since then, he wanted to be a part of that process.
“Around that time I watched movies a lot more,” said Miranda. “It was like magic to me.”
When it comes to time to make the films, it’s whatever ideas he comes up with that give him the start he needs to create his movies. One example is the first film he made titled “Where’s Wyatt.” The feeling that Miranda wanted to get across to the audience was the fear of the unknown. He believes that when producers who make horror films show who the villain is, it can take away the experience from the movie.
“My first short film was a horror film, so I wanted to create a feeling of the fear of the unknown, and I didn’t want the audience to know what the threat or the danger was,” said Miranda. “I feel like in horror movies, when they show the monster, it takes away from it a lot of the time.”
One person who had a great time working for Miranda on the set of “Where’s Wyatt” is fellow CSI student Max Lapinski, who described the experience as “fun” and “inspiring”.
“Being able to help craft his vision was such an honor,” said Lapinksi. “The day we filmed the movie was so fun and it’s something I shall cherish for life.”
Although there are many role models in the industry that he looks up to, one name he said in particular was Lin-Manuel Miranda because he brought the play “Hamilton” to Puerto Rico.
One genre Miranda wants to work prominently in is the “Horror” category, which is also his favorite. This is because the movie “It” inspired him since he was so captivated by the film.
Some short term goals Derek Miranda works toward are to constantly improve his camera work. Miranda is currently in the process of his first feature film script, which he would like to have done soon. He also wants to earn his degree in Cinema Studies, so he can advance in his work field, and begin his career.
He takes this feature film head on by himself when it comes to the writing, receiving feedback as he inches closer towards his goal of completing this movie.
A long term goal of Miranda’s is to bring his feature film to life, and finish it fully. This feature film is a comedy titled “Rent Free,” where a group of friends fresh out of college agree to move into a house together, and want to rent out one of their rooms. However, the person they allow to rent the place is a squatter, which creates a frustrating, yet hilarious situation of trying to get the squatter out.
“The person they rent to turns out to be a squatter, so they think of many ways to try and push her out, and they can’t figure it out,” said Miranda. “It is outrageous.”
