Today we’d like to introduce you to Zachary Hess.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story differs from one where I always knew I would get to work in film. Still, my aspirations and goals have led me to the only career I could see wanting for myself.
I spent the first twenty-two years of my life living in Iowa. In 2021, I moved out to California to get an MFA in Film Editing at Chapman University and get my start as a professional editor.
As a child, I loved movies and learned everything I could about the creatives behind the films I loved. Despite that love for cinema, growing up in the Midwest, there were few opportunities to internalize that being a filmmaker is an actual career path.
If I go deep into my earliest subconscious understanding of someone working in film, I would think about how a classmate of mine in elementary school, her dad, directed a documentary called King Corn after moving to Iowa from California. He had a theater in his house; I thought that was the coolest thing.
My childhood goes by, and I’m in high school taking architecture, fine art, and video production classes. These passions found me developing photos in a dark room, building sets for plays, and directing short films and little documentaries for my video production class.
After high school, I found an opportunity to focus on all of these passions at a small liberal arts university in Iowa, Buena Vista University, where I was able to be a big fish in a small pond. I continued editing shorts and documentaries and eventually led the university television station alongside a staff of friends.
Every summer from 2017 to 2021, I edited short films for the Des Moines 48-hour film project. Forcing myself to edit complete projects in extremely short turnarounds cemented my love of being a part of filmmaking’s last storytelling stage.
In 2018 I spent a summer finishing a feature documentary called Growing Magic which premiered at Chapman University. During my first time in California, I knew I would be back to work in film. Two years later, I started as a graduate editing student at Dodge College.
While at Dodge, I’ve had the opportunity to focus on editing and continue to hone that craft. I continue to develop professionally with internships as an assistant editor. I’m looking forward to this next year when I get to edit my thesis at Dodge and branch out professionally.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s an understatement that many people’s lives changed in March 2020. From 2017 to 2020, my undergraduate career as a media professional was on an upward trajectory. I screened a feature documentary that I worked on in California; I had two fruitful internships under my belt at Iowa PBS and remotely at Glass Creek Films; I was developing my undergraduate thesis film and late in the interview process for a significant documentary internship that would spark my cross country move to Califonia. Then everything shut down. I moved home and had to recalculate my future. All while finishing my semester online and maintaining remote productions for the university television station.
This challenge only cemented my desire to move to California and work in the film industry. It also changed my perspective on opportunities and career paths. In the Summer of 2020, I got to edit a documentary podcast, an opportunity that would only happen if I had been home. I got time to hone editing. I got time to develop two short films that got me into Chapman.
My perspective is to make the absolute most of any opportunity given to you because you never know where it may lead you next. That’s easier said than done. Burnout is real, and I can’t say yes to everything, but I believe things will work out if I look in the right places.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a film editor for all kinds of projects. I work in narrative and documentary storytelling and have expertise in multiple NLE Software. I’ve assistant-edited two documentary features and just over a dozen narrative shorts.
In 2021 I directed and edited a short called Date Night, written by Sheri Davenport. I’m incredibly proud of this film and where it has gone. It was my first time directing, and I learned so much. It got the Best Iowa Film award at the Iowa Independent Film Festival, which means a lot to me.
I’m also very proud of all my editing work while at Dodge. I’ve grown so much, and across all my projects, I love the film Wallpaper I made my first year at Dodge. It will be streaming on Hotstar in India, which is exciting. I think I need to get a VPN to watch it, haha, but I’m so proud when something I’ve edited gets seen by people. At the end of the day, editing is a storytelling art, and I love sculpting the film from the script and the material.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
As someone who tends to be quite concerned about the state of the world, I hope we are all here in ten years. That comedic cynicism aside, I am hopeful regarding film as an art form. The entertainment industry has always had financial hardships and ups and downs. Successes and failures, and yes, having your finger on the pulse of what is successful in this industry, is essential to have a long career. My perspective is that creatively the film industry is in a great place. The strides to make the industry more diverse and equitable allow creativity to flourish.
Contact Info:
- Website: zachhessfilm.com
- Instagram: zach.hess_soup
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachhessfilm/
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11785015/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
Image Credits
Xander BTS Photography
