We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emma Farris a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Emma thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I attended the nation’s #4 film school without a lick of filmmaking experience. Growing up in Fresno, California I was surrounded by farm land, construction sites, and big fancy offices. My entire family was involved in either agriculture investing or residential construction, neither of which ever felt like the place for me. I was an avid reader and writer my entire life, but also busied myself with student government, journalism, and sports- I desperately needed multiple outlets that were more creative than plugging numbers into a spreadsheet and printing blueprints. I also attended a private, Catholic college-prep high school where some of the teachers remembered having my grandfather in class- and the culture there was to go to university, come back, take over the family business, and send your own kids to the same schools. However, my senior year (which was half-spent at home due to Covid-19) brought lots of changes. My parents got divorced, my best friend moved away, we had to leave our childhood home… and so what was I spending all my time doing? Watching movies and filling out college applications. I was on my third year of running the school newspaper and helping to explore the first digital platform it had ever seen and I was convinced that’s what I was going to go to school to do. Fordham. NYC. Journalism. But the more I thought about it, the less it seemed right. More college research led me to Chapman University and their Creative Producing program, which felt like a lightbulb switching on in my brain- you mean I could utilize my business and leadership skills in the magical world of filmmaking? Done! Except for the fact that this was completely unheard of with my family and classmates and opened the door to a LOT of questions, comments, and concerns. But somehow I knew this was what I needed to do. When I got in, it was the best moment of my life so far- and I was terrified at the risk I was taking. We’re all familiar with the unsteady careers in film and the spirit it takes to stick with it… now magnify that times ten with the constant hounding of “well at least you have the family business to come back to.” Looking back at the 4 years I spent at Chapman though, I would say it was the biggest risk and biggest pay off ever. I learned filmmaking and producing from the bottom up, fighting off imposter syndrome, battling with wanting to break out of the film school bubble, and figuring out how to propel myself far enough so that I didn’t have to go back to Fresno. I immersed myself in my own stories as well as other people’s and figured out how to literally do it all. I made best friends, travelled, watched countless movies and shows I never would have otherwise, had the best internships, and ended up graduating with a job lined up for me. I look back on my time at Chapman- and the risk it took to get there as well as all the risks I continued to take while I was there- with an astonishing amount of pride.

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.

I’m from Fresno, California (Farm Town, U.S.A.) and attended Chapman University as a Creative Producing (BFA) student with a minor in Music Business. While at Chapman, I made sure I experienced everything both film school and college had to offer. I joined Kappa Alpha Theta and served on the leadership team for two years, worked part-time in the Student Engagement Office, took classes in London and Paris, attended film festivals (including Sundance), worked on plenty of student sets, and held a total of 3 internships. In the summer of 2024, I was a Production Management Intern at Skydance Animation- a 10 week program that completely changed the course of my senior year and future career, as I fell in love with the world of animation production and now work at the same company full-time as a Production Assistant. Being from a tight-knit Catholic school community in a small, conservative town, there really was no room for stories that didn’t follow the linear “norm.” However, a childhood spent reading fantasy books will quickly teach you that there is a big, beautiful world outside of your own, so going to college was really my chance to learn and observe and ask questions, and hear other people’s stories that I never would have been exposed to growing up. Now, as a creative, I strive to amplify both my own and other people’s stories. I love character-driven, emotional stories- especially those that follow young kids and have a touch of magic. I want to make the next generation’s Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think allowing creatives to (obviously) express themselves but also LEARN how best to express themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely supportive of art and creativity being open- but I was never one of those people that thought “everything is art.” But that’s the beautiful part- just like anything else, art and filmmaking is a learning process. The first thing you make will be absolutely horrible, but you learn how to improve and you fail and fail again until you make something infinitely better. So it’s really a two-way street: the creatives should always be striving to create the best things they can, but society also has to give the space and tools for them to do so, which I don’t think it always does. It’s not helpful to tell a screenwriter “well you’re really good at rom-coms so that’s all you should write” and expect every other rom-com script to be just as good- what if they get good (after a few fails) and writing horror, and then all of a sudden you have the next Haunting of Bly Manor?

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Definitely knowing that in small and big ways, I’m paying it forward. I’m only where I am now because of the creative work of others- my imagination was developed in Camp Half Blood, Hogwarts, and Panem. And it’s only because of movies like The Devil Wears Prada or Into The Spiderverse (and so so many others) that I even thought it would be possible to do the same. So to think that over here at Skydance Animation, I’m working on a feature that could very well be the same source of magic and inspiration for another child growing up in a bubble is really the driving force and why all the risks I took to get to this point were so worthwhile.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: efarris902
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-farris-25a0a0226
• Other: TikTok: e.farriswheel