Georgia Highlands College (GHC) student Katie Weatherford recently completed her second internship on a film set, this time traveling to Columbia, S.C., to work on the upcoming film “Hero.” This is all part of the hands-on training students receive in the film program at GHC.
The film “Hero” is described as a “coming-of-age dramedy” in the vein of the television series “Atlanta” or 2007’s “Juno.” It was filmed by Local Cinema Studios. Local Cinema Studios previously filmed the movie “Holy Irresistible” Featuring Lea DeLaria and filmed in part on GHC’s Floyd Campus the summer of 2021.
Several students, including Weatherford, worked on the production of “Full Ride” in the spring of 2022 in and around Rome. From there, Weatherford made connections on set which helped her learn about “Hero,” meet the writer of the film and take on an internship.
“’Full Ride’ was produced by Iris Indie Films, which is aligned with Local Cinema Studios. This new film, ‘Hero’ was Local Cinema Studio’s second Student Feature,” Division Chair for Humanities Seth Ingram said. “They have a competitive application process, and Katie applied and landed a spot on it.”
One aspect of the “Hero” production that stood out to Weatherford was that the crew had a strong focus on the culture of the set, and leadership made sure there was room for questions and encouraged people to ask questions.
“I think the culture on set can sometimes be overlooked to serve one thing or another. What was different on ‘Hero’ was everyone was looking out for one another,” Weatherford said. “It made it a really great place to spend time – even when it was hot or stressful everyone was still glad to be there and with each other.”
Weatherford began working in a production office during the week of preproduction. She then spent most of her time on set, working as an actor for three of the days, as well as helping the rest of the crew stay safe in the South Carolina sun, observing traffic during street shots and made call sheets and production reports for the second half of the production.
One day on set, Weatherford worked as a production assistant while taking on the assistant camera operation’s role of slating the scenes, as well as doing second assistant director work.
“It was a very busy day, but it was truly so wonderful to have the opportunity to do so many different jobs,” Weatherford said. “I loved how much room for growth there was on ‘Hero.’ A lot of that was due to the group of people working together.”
She said previously working as a stand-in on “Full Ride” allowed her to observe the many roles required on-set to make a movie.
“This was helpful because I could see what worked well. It was also a way for me to put into practice what I had seen in the classroom,” Weatherford said. “I was also able to try out being a script supervisor on that set. I was able to have a lot of hats on ‘Full Ride,’ which helped when I needed to wear many hats on ‘Hero.’”
Weatherford has enjoyed her time at GHC and encourages current students to get involved inside and outside of the classroom.
“I know this is probably very cliché advice, but the second you do, you are going to get to meet so many people,” she said. “Once you find your people, it all falls into place. Even if it doesn’t, you have your people, so there is no need to worry.”
After graduation, Weatherford plans to begin working on set at productions in the Atlanta area.
