We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Olivia Graff. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Olivia below.

Olivia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

As a creative and within my personal life, I am a fiercely loyal supporter, and as I progress in my career, I want my colleagues to remember me as such. While studying at SCAD, I learned that I’m not a director, and it’s truly because I love being the support system for my team. When a director and I enter a project, my sole goal is to act as the guard rails for the story based on everything we’ve discussed. They get to carry the vision while I act as a bounce board for ideas and sometimes clarification when there are so many voices and questions.

On a larger scale, I want to go into social impact entertainment and know that I challenged perspectives and supported underrepresented voices with the art that I made. My passion for film and television was sparked in seventh grade when I watched Boyhood by Richard Linklater during a challenging period in my life—my parents’ divorce. The emotional journey of the protagonist resonated deeply with me, and through his struggles, I found a way to make sense of my own. This experience ignited my love for indie dramas and narratives that offer social commentary. I am driven by a desire to create stories that provide cathartic, transformative experiences for audiences, helping them better understand or critique the world around them. I aspire to be remembered for my work in narrative social-impact entertainment, where I can contribute to projects that inspire change and foster meaningful, impactful art.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am from a small town in Texas, where my love for film and the arts began. As a child, my neighborhood friends and I spent countless hours creating films on iMovie, crafting imaginary worlds and stories of our own. Cinema became both a refuge and a lens through which I could challenge the world around me. It is this duality—offering solace while critiquing reality—that drives my storytelling.

I am currently a junior at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), pursuing a degree in Film with a minor in Dramatic Writing. My focus is on producing, a path that I chose after realizing my true strengths lay not just in the craft of filmmaking, but in connecting people and fostering collaboration. As a producer, you are the heartbeat of the project—the first to join and often the last to leave. This role requires resilience and an unwavering commitment to maintaining optimism and unity, especially when faced with inevitable obstacles.

During my time at SCAD, I’ve had the opportunity to produce or assist in more than 20 projects and contribute to over 65 student film sets. These experiences have deepened my understanding of filmmaking, from pre-production to post, and have shown me that every department plays a crucial role in bringing a film to life. My internship at the Savannah Film Commission further honed my appreciation for the intricacies of production, while bringing projects into the editing room offers a space to reflect and grow from each project.

A funny story from my childhood that I believe reflects my current path in producing is when my neighbor offered me her unused trampoline. My father, ever the realist, refused to help me collect it, seeing it as a hazard. Undeterred, I rallied the neighborhood kids, and hours later, we hoisted the trampoline over the fence ourselves. My father eventually relented and helped us set it up. That night, we all jumped together, a symbol of our collective effort and determination. The story has stayed with me, embodying my approach to filmmaking: it’s about inspiring belief in the vision you want to bring to life, no matter the challenges.

Over the course of my academic career, I’ve produced several student films and led crowdfunding campaigns that raised over $15,000 in support. This experience has taught me the power of storytelling to inspire and unite people—emotionally, creatively, and financially. It has also underscored the importance of faith in a project, and how this trust can fuel a team’s drive to succeed, overcoming challenges along the way.
As I continue to grow in my career, I’ve come to understand the true value of collaboration. My academic journey has taught me that growth is not just an individual pursuit, but a collective one. The strength of a project lies in the expertise we share and the teams we build.

As I transition from student to professional, I carry with me the belief that every role in filmmaking, no matter how large or small, is crucial to the life of the story. Each task should be approached with care and pride, for it is through this attention to detail that great films are made.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Yes, IMDbPro and Variety’s Luminate are invaluable resources that have profoundly shaped my journey in creative development. In the world of film, creative development is not just about crafting a compelling story; it requires a deep understanding of the film market—the evolving landscape of audience demands, emerging trends, and what resonates (or fails to resonate) with viewers. It’s a delicate balance of anticipating market needs while shaping a project’s identity: the budget, the cast, the targeted audience, and, of course, the narrative itself.

Both of these platforms offer a rare and invaluable lens into the industry, providing a wealth of information about who is working on what projects, what trends are emerging, and where individuals are making their mark in the world of film. They illuminate career trajectories and give insight into the creative teams behind successful projects. When paired with a steady diet of industry trades like Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Deadline, they offer a rich, pragmatic education—a blueprint for understanding how the industry operates, who the key players are, and how stories evolve from concept to screen.

Together, these tools offer not just knowledge, but a strategic framework for navigating the intricacies of creative development, empowering you to make informed, forward-thinking decisions in an ever-changing industry.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

You can’t confine yourself to a single path. I’ve always been deeply goal-oriented, finding comfort in setting clear objectives and mapping out practical steps to achieve them. This structured approach has guided me throughout my life—and it still does. However, it also made me hesitant to deviate from my goals, and as a young person still discovering myself, it led me to view new interests as distractions rather than invitations to explore. When I first arrived at SCAD, my goal was clear: I wanted to be a cinematographer. But as my passion for the craft began to fade, I panicked. I felt as though I had wasted time in classes that no longer aligned with my evolving interests, and the thought of straying from a path I had invested so much into felt unsettling.

Yet, the two years I spent immersed in the technicalities of cameras and cinematography have proven to be invaluable in my transition to producing. They offered me a nuanced understanding of the craft, one that allows me to speak the language of various departments within the film world, rather than solely thinking through the lens of a producer. It was then that I realized the danger of limiting myself to a single identity, especially within the dynamic world of film. Film, at its core, is a deeply collaborative medium; the more you understand the intricacies of each department, the more effectively you can collaborate and create.

This realization expanded even further, and I understood that I couldn’t limit myself solely to the world of film. To tell stories that resonate, you must first understand the world around you. Only then can you create art that connects with people beyond the confines of the medium itself. It’s this broader perspective—one that embraces both the micro and the macro—that is integral to the process of making a truly impactful story.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graff.tapes?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-graff/

Image Credits

Headshot: Sage Tudryn