By Rogene Teodoro

The summer break offers students the opportunity to spend time away from their studies. While many use it for fun activities, such as trips abroad, some student artists take advantage of the time to develop their portfolios or gain work experience.

Fourth-year RTA media production students, Amanda Hu, Sydney Leggatt, Keisha Amigleo and Neila Flores came together to found Starfall Pictures. Since January, they’ve been preparing to film the pilot of their upcoming show, Love, TBD. A time travel rom-com taking place in the early 2000s where protagonist, Evangeline, encounters a novel that sends her five years into the past. There, she meets and bonds with her love interest, Jacob, before returning to the present.

Since forming their team, the quartet have completed a 15-minute script and looked into inspiration for their visuals. This summer they have been busy casting for their project, looking for main characters and secondary roles.

Art director and co-writer, Keisha Amigleo, explained that the summer break “gives me time to really sit down and develop ideas and stuff that I want to work on.” This includes “building on certain concepts, like Love, TBD to really make it something that you’re proud of that you can put on your portfolio later on.”

For Raphael Schmitz Mayer, a fifth-year marketing management student and guitarist, this summer is all about “trying to perform with as many artists as I can and also performing in a lot of places.”

Throughout the season, Mayer has played in places he never thought he would be able to, including The Drake Hotel and Sneaky Dee’s.

In terms of performing, “summer opens way more doors,” Mayer said. “Everybody’s more open to go out and to go to a bar to have a drink and even [go] outside to watch anything that is going on.”

Currently, he is gearing up for The 6ix Strings, an acoustic showcase of multiple artists that he has organized this summer.

To prepare, Mayer has been networking and reaching out to musicians, promoting The 6ix Strings on Instagram and rehearsing his songs.

If the showcase goes well, “I’m going to try to do it once a month,” said Mayer.

Passion projects like performances are an opportunity to gain work experience and connections with other members of their community. Such is the case for third-year performance acting student, Emily Fang.

Going into the acting program, Fang said she didn’t have much experience in the industry like her classmates, who were enrolled in acting classes or schools. Her only experience included the small shows performed by her public school drama class.

The summer break gave her a chance to create demo-reels and act in short films, allowing her to get out of her comfort zone. “Actually collaborating with different people from the performance field felt really nice,” she said.

One of those short films, Josie <3, is a slasher-horror about a group of friends who go into the woods to celebrate their graduation. While burning their old schoolwork, they are greeted by an uninvited guest.

Fang said working on the film allowed her to network with people in the industry, build her experience and expand her acting portfolio. “It definitely gave me a lot more space to figure out what my next steps were,” she said.

Madeline Hanitijo, a fourth-year new media student, had a similar experience in the video game development industry.

Hanitijo is working alongside their friends to create a tactical role-playing game with the working title, Project Iron. As the lead artist, Hanitijo focuses on animating characters and managing the art direction.

She’s previously created video games solo but this summer marks the first time they’ve been able to take on a larger game development project by working with some friends.

“Lots of people dream of making games and then give up because it’s so taxing,” Hanitijo said. “Being able to work with like-minded individuals who are passionate about the project makes it so that we can make bigger things. But also that we’re motivated longer.”

As a fourth-year student, Hanitijo said they were worried about not getting hired after graduation. “I think doing this game was my way of seeing what it would be like to be an indie game developer,” they said.

Although she said money is not guaranteed, she gets her own flexible schedule and time to work with other people. More importantly, the experience is helping them have a broader view of what they can do in the future.