UW Certificate in Film & Video Production: Alumni Spotlight

Alum Julie Kettman shares how the UW Certificate in Film & Video Production allowed her to fulfill her lifelong dream of being an artist and caused her career to blossom. To learn more, visit: https://www.pce.uw.edu/certificates/f...

Video Transcript:

[Julie Kettman] I've always wanted to be a writer, and I think when I was in college is when I started to blend visual poetry with sort of real, you know, written poetry. Bringing together those two aspects to create a really strong message for people became like a silent, secret goal. I wanted to be an artist.

I left my job in nonprofit in 2014. I wanted to just take a class to see if my gut feeling was correct; if I actually enjoyed working in film and video production. And I decided to try out the University of Washington's Continuing Education program. It gave me my first set of contacts, my first set of collaborators, my first opportunity to write in screenplay format, to direct my own project, to have my own screening, you know, along with the entire class. And I think more than anything, it helped me feel the positive encouragement and support to understand that this is something I could do.

Since taking the certificate program. My career has changed so much. It's blossomed. My creative partner, who's also my fiancé, the two of us decided to start our own production house. We had a great portfolio of commercial projects that we had done together, and we just knew that we had the complementary skills to produce very high quality work with limited resources.

In the midst of starting our company, we had been working with a local band called Smokey Brights.

[”We’re shooting our Smokey Brights music video!”]

We co-wrote, co-directed, and I produced a video for a song called Resolutions. It had a national premiere in a music magazine and is actually going to be screened in Seattle as part of the Local Sightings Film Festival.

I think we got very fortunate because of the hard work that we've put in up to this point and the positive relationships that we've been able to develop with people in the industry, because from there we won a government contract to produce a 10-episode cooking series for the United States Air Force, which is a huge deal.

I kind of pinch myself sometimes, like, I can't believe I get to live this life. You know, nine years ago, I left my career. I was so excited to try something new, but I was also really scared. Now I'm at a place where I honestly can't believe it. I have my own production company. We have a contract that enables us to have so much creative freedom, so much exciting opportunity to travel, to shoot different things. Every single day I get to, like, live this dream of being an artist and being creative. And that's just—that's the best. It’s the best!