• Majors: Film, Television and Digital Media; Journalism
• Hometown: Brighton, Michigan

Andrew Van Heusden has always loved to tell stories and gained some of his most valuable real-world experience through his Directing for the Camera class with Professor Richard Allen. The class was tasked with working with actors to direct different scenes. Van Heusden said he loved the whole experience from holding auditions and casting actors to rehearsing and recording. He said that this class not only helped him build his portfolio but also showed him what working in the real world was really like.

“Any real-world experience is beneficial, whether it is something big like going to Los Angeles or something small like directing your own project,” he said.

Van Heusden said that through this experience in class he got the opportunity to direct his own film in Granbury and around the Texas Christian University area. He noted that he took what he learned from his directing class and applied it to his short film.

“I definitely wouldn’t have had the chance to be a sufficient director if it wasn’t for my directing class,” he said.

Van Heusden is very interested in working on a film production set and credits his Directing for the Camera class for helping him realize that is what he wants to do for a living.