The Interviews in this article have been edited for clarity.
RVCC student Shelton Hightower is planning on releasing a short biographical film called “Shotgun Dreams, A Conversation With the Dreamer” in the spring of 2024 after producing it as an assignment for his Digital Video Program-Narrative & Documentary class.
Hightower told me, “I think the film will resonate with a lot of people where I’m from.”
In addition to being about his upbringing, the film highlights Hightower’s time at RVCC.
I asked Hightower about his influences as a filmmaker. He responded, “My style is still being developed but I am influenced by directors like Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Guy Ritchie, [the late] Sydney Poitier, and Clint Eastwood.”
Hightower’s friend Kevin Nelson is also featured in the film, taking up the role of interviewing him about his life.
Hightower produced the film by doing what he described as, “Hours and hours of sitting in front of Adobe Premier Pro [which is offered to all RVCC film students].”
Evan Walter is Hightower’s professor Digital Video Program-Narrative and Documentary.
Speaking about Hightower’s film, Walter said, “Shelton’s story is reflective of many experiences that students have at RVCC. We are all trying to find ways to share our life experiences and sometimes those experiences shine a light on the world around us. Viewers will find that Shelton’s film provides those who are not familiar with RVCC an opportunity to see life at the College.”
For the assignment this film was produced for, students in Walter’s class had the option of either creating a 3-5 minute narrative film or 3-8 minute documentary film.
Walter said, “My are expectations [for this assignment] are to have students to find a subject they are passionate about and work to share [that topic] with others so that we discover new insights into the topics they show.”
The film is going to be released on YouTube. When it comes out, we plan on re-posting the film here on The Record’s website.
