We recently connected with Udon Guild and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Udon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think it takes trusting your gut and perseverance, especially when you are still very much in the learning process. There are people who will tell you your limitations which can sometimes lead to self doubt and even a loss of creativity. Other times, it might just be the situation and reality getting in your way. Finding the ability to get up despite what you are told or setbacks come your way, can help you feel proud of what you accomplish. It may not mean much to other but the fact that we are and continue to strive to be true to ourselves makes the whole difference. And so, working on this film project and starting Udon Guild Productions, We hope to continue to aspire to make decisions that will make me proud of the projects we accomplish.
– Fatima

This year I really understood why having a support system and how being available as a support system for the people you know can really set you up for a lot of opportunities. Being open and a little vulnerable can help others understand you, your goals and what you need. Asking for help in your time of need, helping others out, it’s a cycle that should be ingrained in our society again! Rome wasn’t built in a day and it certainly wasn’t built by one person, you need a community to help you achieve your dreams. Something Fatima taught me, is sometimes all you need to do to make a new connection is to talk to someone new.
– Yasmin

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Fatima Warraich. I am a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a degree in fine arts.

I am Yasmin Trammell, a recent graduate of UW Madison as well, with degrees in communication arts and life sciences communications.

We, Udon Guild Productions, are a bunch of students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, coming together to create our short film Experiences of Love. Experiences of Love is a coming-of-age story with a non-linear narrative following the supernatural being called Love. From the perspective of Love, retells their experiences in the world while learning how relationships work. On that journey, we learn about self, family, romance and friendship love with 4 mini stories starring our main character— Love itself.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think the journey to make a short film, especially venturing on a personal project, comes with multiple setbacks and learning opportunities. I am not afraid to admit that I came into this project with nothing but enthusiasm and will to make it happen. I think establishing a team, writing a story, fundraising money etc. in such a short amount of time proves that. Along the way, I struggled with leadership on separating the different tasks to others, but I had to learn how to tell people what to do to get things don while upholding my want for collaboration as a group rather than me telling people what to do. I wanted people to be excited about this project as much as I was, but I also had learn how to lead. Secondly, I had to learn to adapt to a whole new writing format and learn new rules of story-telling, as well as learn moderate my ideas and rework and shorten the story to get the main points across. I had to learn that film making is fun, but it is not an easy process as most things are when you start out, but I think that is what has made it so fun and rewarding. What is better than learning on the job.
– Fatima

The show must go on— people who are not in film, don’t truly understand this is the absolute standard by which filmmaking must work by! It’s always important to keep pushing until the film is done on time as working on them is very expensive and very difficult. With this as your motto, you can learn to go far with your own filmmaking projects. I think my resilience comes from the fact that I am always coming up with another plan if things don’t work out, there’s always another way to make it happen on time! Sometimes you just need that push to remember, though filmmaking is fun— it’s for those who are willing to do anything to make it happen. You can be that person— you just need the opportunity.
– Yasmin

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

We met in a Beginner Korean Language learning college course in freshman year. Funny enough, we were assigned to make a video project together in which we wrote a script and had to film it. Unfortunately after the class ended we lost contact for a couple years, seeing each other on and off at random moments. It was good thing we exchanged contact info, because four years later, I (Fatima) reached out to Yasmin asking if she wanted to work on this project with me. I’m not one to believe in the idea that ‘some things are meant to happen’ but I do sometime ponder on that thought of how funny it is we started off with a 7 minute video for a class, and ended up here, making an actual short film. I hope that we continue to work together in the future and showcase many more amazing stories we have to tell!
– Fatima

When Fatima contacted me this January, I wasn’t sure yet what I was going to do after I graduated. She proposed that I help her with her script and I accepted— what came with it was a year long journey to create something she was passionate about. We were able to create something where many students could learn about filmmaking outside of the school system & small film industry within Madison— and young and new actors can earn portfolio work. We hope in the future we can get into film festivals with our project, catapulting the early careers of these young upcoming filmmakers and into the industry.
– Yasmin

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/udonguildproductions/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/ZDSqF48tYPga1SUb/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@UdonGuild

Image Credits

Emily Johnson
Yasmin Trammell
Shloka Mohanty