From left, Hannah Emmack, Bryan McLain and Liam Mclain film “Do sentient puppets think for themselves or is it the hand up their a**”?” in Atascadero, CA. Photo courtesy of Mindy Mclain
Exploring passions while in college can be a challenge for the busy schedules of full-time college students. Central Coast natives Hannah Emmack and Liam Mclain are changing that narrative by bringing student-run community events to Cuesta College.
Cuesta College second-year English major Hannah Emmack and first-year music theory major Liam Mclain are student filmmakers who successfully hosted their first Cuesta College Film Fest on May 9, showcasing short films created by students and faculty. The idea of creating a film festival was a recent idea for Emmack and Mclain. The festival featured short films ranging in different genres, including their own submissions of “Do sentient puppets think for themselves or is it the hand up their a**?” and “Descensus.” After viewing the films, a ceremony was held to award the first-time Cuesta College film festival winners. The festival concluded with the film directors participating in question-and-answer sessions with the audience.
The couple had only one month to host the event. Supporting the event as the faculty advisor was English Professor Thomas Patchell. As a film enthusiast with connections on campus to guide logistics, Patchell was able to help the couple secure funding for the awards from the Presidential Innovation Fund at Cuesta College.
“Hannah and Liam are great. Both have experience making films. They’re passionate about it. I think I saw their first film about a year ago. Hannah texted me and I watched [Descensus] on my phone, and it was pretty good. For their young age, they are very professional,” Patchell said.
Despite the enjoyment of film, Mclain and Emmack chose a different route in their college academic studies. Both pull inspiration from their majors as they feel it correlates with film creation.
Mclain’s inspiration derives from his major, music theory. “I’d say my biggest inspiration is music. I close my eyes and see things when I listen to music, and those things I see, I turn into ideas on the screen. I usually base the things I make out of one thing I see in a song,” Mclain said. “Music is a very pivotal thing for me.”
He has eclectic taste in music, ranging from contemporary jazz to EDM. The musical inspirations allow him to generate fluid ideas.
Emmack’s inspirations emerge from diverse media, varying from literature, TV series or her own experience practicing theater. “I’m a fan of longer-running shows that show the gritty, raw side to life. The kind of down-to-earth, depicting some relatable themes. That’s just not reflected in my work, but that’s what inspires me,” Emmack said. “A lot of the time, you can really distill a theme in a work, and what really inspires me is putting it into the film in a realistic way.”
Community colleges receive a common stereotype of not having enough student engagement on campus compared to universities. As Cuesta College is a commuter campus, Emmack hopes more students know “we can choose to make this a really vivacious and lively campus, because students have their own autonomy to create events like [the film festival]. You don’t have to be affiliated with a club or with a certain professor or department in order to start something like this. You have complete freedom and support from faculty and staff,” Emmack said. “Everyone should be aware, you never know who’s going to have a creative idea that keeps on for semesters to come.”
Mclain grew up around videography. His father founded Several Guys film production company locally on the Central Coast, specializing in commercials. Creating and directing became second nature to Mclain, as one of his first experiences with creating his own content was using the platform iMovie to make his multi-variation music videos to “Brass Monkey” by the Beastie Boys as a young kid.
Emmack recalls her first experience with filmmaking using iMovie to create stop-motion videos with Barbie dolls with DIY hair cuts and hand-drawn tattoos being subjected into odd situations.
Years later, Emmack met Mclain at Atascadero High School in the Drama Department, sparking Emmack’s interest again in filmmaking with Mclain.
Emmack was involved in theater all four years of high school. “That was my life outside of academics – all my friends, all my outside events,” Emmack said. Senior year she was captain of the improv team, and over the years involved as a “techie” in technical theater, an actor and an improviser. Mclain and Emmack met later in high school and immediately clicking as friends, sharing similar out-going, confident energy to the drama team.
Asking an artist what their favorite piece of work they’ve put out is a near impossible task.
Emmack and Mclain explained their first collaboration together was a fond memory. This was the longest project to be released as filming started in June and uploaded in Dec. One summer evening in 2023, “It was late, he [Mclain] was dropping me off, we were hanging out and within 30 minutes we had the script written to “Around the Table.” Emmack said. “ This was a multimedia film, we had our friends in on it, and asked Liam’s dad to help film. Around the Table was a special thing for me because it was so out there.”
Although Emmack will be transferring in the fall to Cal Poly SLO to complete her bachelor of arts in English, Mclain will continue attending Cuesta College and hosting the annual film fest at the end of the year. The couple plans to continue this as a stand alone event not affiliated with a club.
“As faculty advisor with a commitment to supporting students’ interests, I would really like this to return. Yes, I think it was exceptional. I’m going to support him [Liam] the same way I supported Hannah to make this happen and going to make it better,” Patchell said. “I’ve got some ideas that will make it a little more like a film festival.”
To view more of Emmack’s and Mclain’s films, follow their creative journeys on YouTube.