The world is his stage. He simply selects which parts of the world to highlight. The cast are made up of friends, neighbors and newcomers. He invites anyone’s presence to bring in life and meaning. The vision is in his mind. He molds his environment until it illustrates that image. His tools are light fixtures, a three-sided reflector, a shotgun microphone and a camera. His name is Stephen Gordon, and he is the creator and head of Eastern University’s new Visual Arts Club.
Gordon created the Visual Arts Club to help other campus clubs promote themselves and for the simple joy of creating a film with friends. Gordon states, “My motivation began when I saw a lack of visual art materials, including short films, documentaries, promos [and] pictures on many of the Eastern-related Facebook pages. I said to myself, huh, I have an idea that could really help these clubs and benefit many of the creative people on this campus. I decided to start this club, and it has been expanding very rapidly.”
Gordon has enjoyed watching and making films long before coming to Eastern University. When he was a child he pretended he was a character from the movies, such as Frank and Joe Hardy, Batman and Harry Potter: “I would always put myself in these worlds and live in them. When I finally started getting older, the imagination slowly came to [a] realization of how I could still live in my worlds even since playtime was over….I saw I could create my entire worlds again for myself but also have an audience that could see the worlds I created and have them believe the world from my imagination was real. The technology today, specifically for special effects, can do almost anything. I mean, c’mon, did you see ‘Doctor Strange?’”
This realization of crafting anything from his imagination is something Gordon brings with him during every day of shooting. Gordon shares, “Whenever I’m on set or editing I have this childlike energy and excitement of bringing the entire video to completion. It’s such a good time! I love doing the lighting, I love framing each picture while I film and I love editing frame by frame.”
Even though Gordon’s new club was created at the beginning of the year, the Visual Arts Club has already made contributions to Eastern University. He says, “We’ve made a promo Ultimate Frisbee Video, which you can see on our Facebook page…and we are working on a small video for the ‘Waiting For Lefty’ play, which is put on by Eastern’s theatre department.” In addition to making promotional videos for clubs, the Visual Arts Club plans to make other film projects in various genres. Gordon says, “We also are working on a comedic/informative video about the Visual Arts Club, which will introduce the club to the campus. It’s tightly under wraps; shhhhh, I can’t give away too many secrets.”
Gordon offers an open-armed invitation to anyone who would love to be a part of the Visual Arts Club: “If you want to get involved with our Visual Arts Club, look at our Facebook page when we post meeting times. We usually meet in [the] Jammin’ Java every Friday at 4 p.m., so drop by—we would love to have you….Even if you have no experience or a ton of experience, we want you either way.”
Whether you are a skilled cinematographer or an ambitious newcomer, Gordon would love to have you on set: “We are looking for all sorts of people, writers, directors, camera operators and anyone who wants to be a part of making videos and film. The possibilities are endless.”
Source: Stephen Gordon
Ella Curcuruto 
Savana Dodd 
Grace Nealy