Wes Palmer

You were a Film & TV undergraduate major at BU. What made you decide to continue your education at BU by pursuing an MFA in Cinema and Media Production? Did you apply to any other programs? Why did you decide to stay in Boston instead of going to LA?
I made the decision to pursue the MFA in Cinema and Media Production at BU because of the fantastic time I had in undergrad, and even after four years of study, I still felt that I had a lot yet to learn from the great faculty members. I love Boston as a city and as a place to learn, and there are some huge advantages to learning filmmaking in Boston, not the least of which is that the process itself (shooting in Boston) is inherently far less expensive.

If I went up to a restaurant in LA and told them I wanted to film in their business, they would hand over their standard film rates. Here in Boston, people and businesses get excited just to be involved. There’s an overall lack of cynicism about filmmaking in a way that’s hugely beneficial to a young filmmaker starting out, and you can find so much support from the community here. At the same time, major productions are shot in town every year, so I’ve still been lucky enough to work and crew on network TV shows, Hollywood studio feature films and everything in between.

What do you like the most and least about the CMP program? Can you talk about the projects that you’ve worked on? How is it to work with a small cohort of classmates?
Our class size this year is ten people, including directors, cinematographers, and producers. It’s been amazing to work with such a small, close group of likeminded and talented individuals.

For our first semester, we’ve been shooting challenges, assignments and short films throughout this semester while developing our thesis film stories and scripts alongside writers in our sister MFA Screenwriting program. We also have a weekly class where the directors are paired up with two extraordinarily talented actors from the Boston area and get to focus on that actor/director relationship, workshop scenes and ideas, and all of that build up to a short film that we’ll be filming as our final project for the semester.

Next semester, we'll have our scripts finalized and really dive into pre-production for our thesis films, while still taking core classes and refining/practicing our crafts each week.

Can you give a brief description of your project that won the Redstones and the process that got you there? What was it like to win such a prestigious prize?
“You Are Here,” was my undergraduate thesis film, and it portrayed a resourceful loner camping inside  camping out inside of an RV on display in the local shopping mall. In the film, he’s forced to stay one step ahead of a greasy cop to fulfill his dream of one day seeing the Grand Canyon.

It was an honor to just be selected and involved in the process, let alone win the festival. The Redstones was really the first time we screened the film to a large audience and not just faculty and close friends, so we got so much out of the reaction and feedback from the community. The prizes certainly didn’t hurt, either.

Where do you see yourself headed after you graduate?
After all of this extensive training in Boston, I’m currently planning on heading out to Los Angeles after graduation to put everything I’ve learned to the test in the industry on the West Coast!