Andrew Garrison’s Insights in Film

Starting in the film industry can be difficult or intimidating in the beginning. The film industry only comes easier with experience, which Andrew Garrison has a lot of. He has worked on films such as Trash Dance, Night Ride, and One Ring Circus, filling positions from Director to cinematographer. He has been interested in film and the many aspects of it since elementary school. This is how he got to where he is today as well as what he has learned along the way.

Andrew has been interested in “photography, sound, and moving image since elementary school...but my desire to make things, to also work with technical tools, and to play with my imagination could have led in many different directions.” He has several stories from when he was younger when he was experimenting with these genres. He recalls his “best friend in fourth grade and [him] projecting shadows on the ceiling from our toy dinosaurs, with flashlights, to make up stories.”

He explored a lot more in his youth going as far as making flip books, to playing with cutout magazines. “By 6th grade, [he] had started shooting with [his] mother’s 8mm home movie camera, scenes of [his] model airplanes going down in flames.” which shows his investment in middle school. He has been set on the film industry for most of his life and constantly used his imagination and available equipment to explore the art. Throughout middle school and high school, he gained access to more technologically advanced gear. This was when he started to work with television cameras as well as sound. There were some restrictions that he wished were not put on the equipment, but nonetheless, his “imagination was fired up”

In college, he gained access to half-inch portable video, and not only that but his college greatly encouraged him to experiment with the new technology.

“I got into filmmaking because my friends and I thought making and distributing media could help change the world. I know that to be true, though I also have broader ideas about how change happens.” Andrew said, summarizing what made him go down the path of filmmaking. Andrew was asked if there are any “tips for up-and-coming filmmakers that want to follow a similar path as” him. He said that while the path will inevitably be different than his, “to keep doing things that intrigue you, Keep trying to do new things even if they seem insufficiently important (they are not), be patient with yourself, hear and see how people respond to your work, but listen to your own voice about how to shape it, and say “yes” as often as you can to [work] with other people, but only if it is fun. By fun, I mean intriguing, compelling, or yes, hilarious.”

Andrew is now an independent filmmaker based in Austin, Texas, and has experience in several areas of film, whether in the sound department, as a director, as a cinematographer, and even more. He has years of experience in the film industry and is currently working on a movie called Because I’m Here. He is still a filmmaker as well as a film teacher at the University of Texas.