UWS student Jake Edwards has had wide interest in the film industry since being a teenager at Superior High School. Since then, he has built a passion for creating and evaluating films.

Edwards has bought over 300 physical movies himself. He has studied and been inspired by these films. His favorite movies in his collection are his “Back to the Future” trilogy steelbook collection and a movie called “Repo Man” because of the cover art.

Edwards has not always been a movie lover. He really adapted them into his life only a few years into high school. Many directors and actors seemed to help his creative process and helped him find his true love in creating films.

“As a teenager in high school, I became especially inspired by films from the Coen brothers, Martin Scorcese and newer films from Damien Chazelle and Greta Gerwig. I already had an interest in performing, but at that time I gained major interest in the creative process involved with making movies, and the emotional impact you can leave on an audience,” Edwards stated.

Edwards is now majoring in communicating arts with a focus in digital filmmaking and has now created two short films that can be viewed on Youtube called “Great American Cowboy” and “Going Cold,” which he directed, edited, shot, and wrote. These two projects have been entered into film festivals. Many movies in his collection have also made a huge impact on the way he created his two short films.

“A few movies I’ve owned for a while now, “Shutter Island” and “Get Out,” both have great twists. I think I’ve made an emphasis on including a plot twist in my short films, as well as the one I’m writing right now,” said Edwards.

Specific films that Edwards studied in school were “Moonlight,” “400 Blows,” “Do The Right Thing,” and a recent film called “Margaret.” He mainly focused on studying the shot compositions, editing techniques, and the sound design of these films. Edwards made his films the way they were and gave them their specific themes for a good and creative reason.

“I thought that using genre filmmaking and traditional genre tropes would be an interesting way to explore very flawed protagonists. In traditional western or crime noir films, the protagonist is typically a perfect hero who doesn’t make mistakes, so I thought there would be comedy to be found in flipping that idea on its head,” Edwards said.

Edwards plans to continue studying new films and new things about them to go along with future projects he aspires on creating. He hopes to be an important part of the film industry someday and to continue following his dream of providing creative works of entertainment.