Today we’d like to introduce you to Mason Leaver.
Hi Mason, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My film-making journey starts in my junior year of high school. At that point, I knew I wanted to do something creative, but I wasn’t sure exactly what. I thought the film might be worth trying, so I tried to sign up for my school’s videography course. Unfortunately, I was the only one to sign up, and when I asked my principle if I could still take the class, she said they couldn’t offer it.
As luck would have it, another teacher overheard some of our conversations. This was Mr. Drake, the theater teacher at my school. He offered to do a film class as an independent study with me. While Mr. Drake didn’t know a lot about film, he offered that we could research topics and learn together. At the same time, I would help him to produce the student play and would be the assistant director. Over that semester, I fell in love with screenwriting and with directing. At the end of the semester, I’d written a 30-page short film, and of course, decided I needed to make it. Over the next few months, I directed the short film with a few friends as my actors. It was, naturally, not a very good film. But I fell in love with the process of filmmaking and knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. In undergrad, I double majored in film and philosophy, and I’ve found that the philosophy degree has really informed my filmmaking in meaningful ways. Now I’m a graduate student at Chapman University studying directing and am hoping to go into work in the film industry and someday teach film at a college level.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Overall, it’s been a fairly smooth road. Of course, there’s always things that go wrong – projects that go wrong, last-minute problems that cause insane levels of stress, etc. The good thing is that so far, I’ve just been learning in school settings – it’s a place where it’s still safe to fail. Even when there are failures or setbacks, it’s not the end of the world because the point of film school is to try stuff and fail, and keep learning.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Like I said previously, part of my background is that I have an undergraduate degree in Philosophy. I think this plays a big part in my filmmaking and my approach to directing. When you think carefully about different perspectives and worldviews in philosophy, that can play out in interesting ways when you approach thinking about a character. Characters, like people, should have tacit beliefs and patterns of thought that shape their lives without them necessarily being aware of it. Essentially, philosophy has helped me to think about how the beliefs that characters hold influence their behavior. Additionally, it’s provided me with plenty of interesting material to explore. The challenge with this, of course, is that you want to keep your material entertaining, it shouldn’t just be didactic. There’s a fine line between exploring an interesting topic and creating a piece of film that’s essentially just a philosophy lecture or worse, propaganda.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
My motto in life is “Say yes when you can”. Basically, it means that if an opportunity comes along and there’s no reason to say no to it, you take that opportunity every time. If people are looking for collaborators on a project and want me involved, I’m already inclined to say yes. I love working on as many projects as I can, and when true collaboration is taking place, everyone is going to learn and benefit. So if you’re interested in collaborating, shoot me a DM on Instagram and we’ll make it happen.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @mason_s_l
