Spotlight on...Perry Blackshear

Author: Astri von Arbin-Ahlander

What strikes me as I enter Perry Blackshear's Sunderland basement office are the walls - cream-colored cinderblock is spotted with old film posters, pictures of friends, flyers from campus screenings of his own films and, finally, an old photograph of Perry himself. It was taken almost a decade ago but he still triumphantly holds up a camera, a wide grin plastered on his face. Funny how some things seem to stay the same. Perry Blackshear '05 is probably Middlebury's most promising recently-graduated film talent and the recent winner of the Vermont International Film Festival's Best Student Film award for his short film, "The Patient of Doctor Rice." This year, Blackshear is working for Middlebury as a Digital Media Graduate intern.



The Middlebury Campus: How did you get into film, and when did you begin making your own films?

Perry Blackshear: I started making movies when I was in seventh grade. My mom got me a little quick-cam for my birthday, and I started making movies with my friends. You know, fighting each other with lightsabers, that sort of thing (laughs). Then I sort of grew with the technology. In high school, I began making music videos, class presentations, stuff like that. It was my chance to shine. I had too much stage-fright to do anything else, but I had a lot of creative energy and this was a way that I could perform without actually performing.



The Campus: How is working on films at Middlebury, which is not a specialized film school?

PB: When I first came to Middlebury, I was a Biology major. I figured I could do that and do film on the side, but finally Ted Perry, the former head of the Film and Media Culture department, managed to convince me that I knew almost nothing, which was true. The more I learned about film, the more I realized I had to learn. Middlebury's such a small pond that even if you're not a very big fish, people will pay attention to you. Here you can ask your teachers for advice on scenes, I feel like that would be unheard of at a film school. Also, the equipment here is excellent, it's just underutilized. The lack of people to assist was difficult, but one of the biggest advantages of making a film with just you and no crew is that you can turn on a dime, so with the last movie I made I wrote it as I went along. The other good thing is that you can write parts specifically for people, catch that special thing they have. It was great that I have so many great friends that can throw themselves in front of the camera and just explode. Movies I made here would have been nothing without my friends.



The Campus: Your film "The Patient of Doctor Rice" just won the Vermont International Film Festival's student section. Crazy!?

PB: It felt really surreal. I had never been to a film festival before. Just the whole idea of films and competition, I had never even thought of that. Putting it out there in a different environment where no one knows you is actually kind of terrifying, but it was wonderful. I'm entering more festivals. I've gotten admitted to a couple, rejected from a bunch.



The Campus: You graduated with the class of 2005...so why are you still around?

PB: When I was offered this job what they told me was that they wanted to kick start production at this school. The writing is exceptional, the theory is exceptional and the resources are exceptional, but there just doesn't seem to be that much going on in terms of production. My job is to try to help students with independent projects, help in production classes, tell them all the mistakes I made and how to avoid them and just sort of be here as technical assistance. I get to help kids make movies, and I can't think of a better thing to get paid for.



The Campus: So, what's in your future?

PB: After this year I will hopefully have a couple of films circulating around in various stages of development and I'll send them to festivals, meet people. Really, it's all very vague. It's sort of like they are all shots in the dark on some level but if you throw out enough of them then one might hit. Possibly I'll try to get a job as an editor. In terms of Hollywood, my sense is that the ratio of talent in relation to people in the work force is so tiny. Though, as opposed to being a writer, director or actor - which everyone wants to be - an editor is a real finite skill. It's one of those things that not too many people want to do because it's kind of nerdy and taxing, and that is something that I could get paid for. And you actually have a lot of creative freedom as an editor. You work closely with the most important people on the crew - the director, the producer, the writer - as opposed to being on a huge set where there's a thousand things going on. So I think that would be an honest way to start.



The Campus: What's the big dream?

PB: The dream is to get together with a group of friends from school or people I meet, go to NYC or LA and have the equivalent of a theatre group except with film, where you have your lead actor and actress, a writer, an editor, a musician, a producer etc. You go and you all work together to create short films and send them off to festivals. Essentially, a production company, but in looser terms. Kind of like "Rent."