Will Nordstrom ’21: Filmmaker

By Kaki Joiner ’21

Will Nordstrom ’21 has taken an interest in the art of filmmaking. Nordstrom was inspired at a young age by his older brother, who has received various awards for his own films. Nordstrom is well known for his films amongst his peers due to the fact that his peers often participate as actors in his movies. In Nordstrom’s latest movie, “In the Trees,” he and some of his friends from the school shot the scenes in a forest in Seattle. As they were filming, Nordstrom said that at times he could tell his friends did not think the movie would be great because they did not understand some of the things he was doing.
Nordstrom said filming with his friends is really fun and the constant laughter while filming makes it even more enjoyable.
“Taking the actual footage usually doesn’t take a long time, but if my friends are laughing and can’t keep it together it takes longer… but it depends on the mood of the situation or if everyone is tired,” Nordstrom said.
For Nordstrom, the longest part of his filmmaking process is the editing, which can take months. While the editing is a long process in which Nordstrom uses the app “Final Cut Pro,” the writing and actual filming, which he does on a Canon ADD, only takes a couple days. After Nordstrom finishes writing the whole script and filming the whole movie, his father often looks over his work and gives some constructive criticism like proofreading scripts or helping edit footage.
Nordstrom said his favorite genre of film to write is a mixture of drama and comedy, called “Dramedies.” He said he hopes to experiment with the genre of horror movies but said he has never been interested in making action movies.
“I usually show my films to my family, my friends, and even my family friends who my dad suggests the movies to. My films are online on the website called Vimeo, so my dad tells a lot of people to watch it,” Nordstrom said.
Nordstrom said his current goal in filmmaking is to be the youngest person to be awarded for his achievements in filmmaking, while later he hopes to go to USC, Cal Arts  or maybe even NYU.
“When I’m older I want to either direct, be a cinematographer or even screen write… but my favorite is cinematography,” Nordstrom said.