Filmmaker Isaiah Vivero creates environment for film enthusiasts

In 2016, Isaiah Vivero, an incoming freshman at the time, applied to be part of the newly formed school team that would attend the All-American High School Film Festival, a prestigious filmmaking competition located in New York City.

The team went back to New York for the invitational a year later, during Vivero’s sophomore year. Looking back on the trip, Vivero, now a junior, said the experience shaped his friendships with the people on the team as well as his participation in the Media Arts Program.

“As a freshman, I was in love with the program so that’s why I applied to be on the team and am very involved to MAP today,” Vivero said.

Now, Vivero continues to follow his pursuits in cinema through the creation of a filmmaking club on campus. In 2016, Vivero and junior Nick Bray created Filmmakers Club, a group dedicated to collaborative film production.

“We thought a lot of people want to make films, but they don’t know who to work with,” Vivero said. “So, we assembled the club for people to make large-scale films and take control of projects as well.”

Club members come up with ideas, write scripts and later shoot and produce these projects. Recently, the club filmed a remake of a “Jurassic Park” scene at a reservoir.

Alex Hemmerich, a media arts teacher and Filmmakers club adviser, recognizes Vivero’s passion for film.

“He has a genuine love and curiosity for film that breeds a distinct kind of creativity and dedication,” Hemmerich said. “His projects were always thoughtful, well executed and inventive in their approach.”

Outside of creating films for Filmmaker’s club, Vivero also does personal projects as a hobby. As of right now, Vivero is working with a friend on a lemonade stand comedy.

Vivero has also played an active role as an advocate for student involvement in entertainment and media as co-head of MAP’s high school recruitment committee, in which he works with Manny Steffen, the Redwood Middle School media arts teacher, by working on promotional videos to get incoming freshmen to join MAP.

In the future, Vivero hopes to become a filmmaker and go into an elite film school or program such as NYU Tisch’s film program. Eventually, Vivero wants to go to Los Angeles to fulfill his dream of working on film sets because of opportunities available there.

“I always wanted to make movies to entertain, help and affect people like they have for me throughout my life,” Vivero said. “I always loved film because it was an extremely creative process that I could escape to at anytime.”