When Class of 2021 alumnus Graham Barbour first arrived at the University as a student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, a career in film was the last thing on his list of post-graduate possibilities. Now, seven years after first stepping on Grounds, he stands in the snow-capped Andes, shooting an advertisement for a ski jacket startup. Barbour, a New York-based cinematographer and director, credits his experience at the University for steering him towards his current career as a full-time creative.
Barbour said his 180-degree turn to filmmaking started in a multimedia journalism class he took after leaving the School of Engineering to pursue a Media Studies major. In the course, students were assigned to be either on-screen reporters or behind-the-scenes producers documenting non-fiction stories on video. Barbour was assigned to be one of the producers, and by the end of the semester, Barbour created his first ever short film about park rangers.
“I chose to do something about the Shenandoah Park Rangers, and went up there and filmed, and brought my buddy with me who knew how to work a camera, and kind of fell in love with the process during that,” Barbour said.
After he got his first taste of film production, Barbour said he became more involved in the local film and arts scene. He branched out into creating video content for WUVA, a student run multimedia organization, and U.Va. Today, the University’s in-house news website. He also worked on a team producing a narrative short for the Adrenaline Film Project — a 72-hour short film competition — which prepared him for the low budgets, time constraints and hectic nature of independent filmmaking.
While the University does not have a dedicated film major, it does offer an assortment of film-related classes in the Media Studies department. Barbour said that these courses — which include cinematography, multimedia journalism and film theory — were indispensable to him in his career path.
Beyond the classroom, Barbour said he also found ways to get more experience behind the camera during his time on Grounds. According to Barbour, the single most important thing any current student interested in film can do is to pursue that interest outside of class and “do it yourself.”
“U.Va. is not a film school, and they have a great cinematography class. But you really have to sort of take the initiative,” Barbour said.
Barbour also said that several professors in the Media Studies department served as mentors who fostered his love for the art and supported his filmmaking skills. Barbour specifically named André Cavalcante, associate professor of media studies and women, gender and sexuality, and William Little, associate professor of media studies, as two professors who helped develop him into the filmmaker he is today.
"André Cavalcante was just a very sweet, energetic dude who just made me excited about the topic,” Barbour said. “William Little … is the greatest professor, and sort of sparked this incredible passion and interest in film in me.”
Since graduating from the University, Barbour has worked in a variety of visual mediums but has spent most of his time creating advertisements for companies like Ableton, Bed Bath & Beyond and even Fortnite. While shooting commercials may not be associated with the glitz and glamor of a Hollywood blockbuster, Barbour emphasizes how necessary it is for young creatives to work in the advertising space to get a foot in the film industry, even if narrative filmmaking and its appeal of personal storytelling is the end goal.
“Until you are like, you know [Christopher] Nolan, or [Martin] Scorsese or one of these guys who are household names, you need to make commercials in order to survive, because, most of the time, if you're doing narrative work, it's going to be really low budget.”
While making commercials for big companies — whether that be just behind the camera as a cinematographer or overseeing the whole operation as director — might not seem like the most exciting gig to young, aspiring filmmakers, Barbour said these projects offer more creative freedom than they would expect because of the large budgets that accompany them.
Barbour referenced one of the big-budget commercials he worked on as an example of this, sharing that it gave him the opportunity to create vibrant and attention-grabbing visuals.
“It’s like one of the only times that I'm really afforded the resources that I want and need to make the images that I want,” Barbour said. “We made some just, incredible, incredible images that don't feel like a commercial. They just feel cool.”
As for what he has in store for the future, Barbour said he plans to shoot his first horror feature in Pennsylvania in January. Having worked with this film’s crew already on a previous project, he said he hopes to use that pre-established rapport to create plenty of “crazy, gory stuff” on screen.
Although he has experience working on narrative films in the past, Barbour says that this supernatural project is his first foray into the horror genre.
“I can't watch horrors, like, they scare me too much. So I'm like, hopefully, being on the inside of it, will sort of demystify it a little bit for me.”
Still in the early years of his career, Barbour said he still has not quite discovered his specific style of filmmaking. Despite being in this period of discovery, his work is still consistently sleek, dynamic and visually blissful. Barbour said that he is looking forward to being able to reflect on this portfolio in “another five or so years,” and from it clearly detect his unique brand of filmmaking.
You can keep up with Barbour and his work on his Instagram, @god_grahammit, and his website.
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