When filmmakers visit Sarasota classrooms, the real value isn’t celebrity. It’s access.

That was the mood inside Ed Fagan’s class at Suncoast Technical College, where roughly 12 students sat in close enough quarters to ask the kinds of questions that rarely fit inside an everyday lecture: How do you turn a short into a feature? Is a script ever really finished? What do employers actually care about when they hire? And if you don’t live in Los Angeles or New York, can you still build a career in film?

The visitors that day were filmmaker Isa Mazzei, whose credits include Cam and Faces of Death, Divide/Conquer head of production Derek Bishé and line producer Lena Mesiano. Together, they gave the students something more useful than a pep talk. They described a business that’s unstable, collaborative, exhausting and still, somehow, worth trying to enter. Mazzei told the group there’s no fixed path in. “There’s no set of steps you can follow that will guarantee success,” she said. “The thing that will guarantee success is hard work, tenacity and doing something that you're passionate about.”

Her other advice: "Read scripts. Watch movies with the screenplay beside you. Break films down scene by scene." Write down not just what happens, she said, but how each scene makes you feel and how it moves the story forward. “You really will learn a lot,” she told the student.

That exchange set the tone for the room. Nobody was pretending filmmaking was glamorous all the time. Bishé, who now oversees productions for Divide/Conquer, told the class he’d started in film school wanting to edit, then moved through the art department as a prop maker, set builder and painter before realizing his instincts leaned toward scheduling, logistics and production management. He said he learned by doing, working on set over and over, sometimes four or five features a year.

Mesiano’s route was equally practical. In one of the day’s most useful answers, she described how a visiting producer changed her trajectory by sitting down with her for hours and showing her how to break down a script. From there came internships, production work and the less glamorous labor that makes a career possible: sweeping floors, filling coolers, sending emails, asking for introductions and staying persistent long after most people would’ve stopped. “If you get 99 'no's, one 'yes' is enough,” she told the students.

Mazzei, who didn’t come up through traditional film school, said she started by making short films with friends, running a theater company in high school and eventually pushing her first feature script into the world with nerve over certainty. Her advice to the Sarasota students was to stop waiting for ideal conditions. Make shorts now. Collaborate now. If you want to edit, offer to edit someone else’s work. If you want to shoot, volunteer to shoot. If you want to write, write.

“This is such a fun time for you to kind of try out different things and collaborate with your friends,” she said. After all,  she added, “you have a camera in your pocket now. Use it."

The students also wanted to know what matters when someone’s being hired. Degrees, it turns out, aren't high on the list. Mazzei said she doesn’t care where someone went to school. What matters is whether they can show good work, understand story and can function as part of a collaborative whole. On a film set, she said, every department is helping tell the same story. Bishé and the others added that entry-level workers don’t need to know everything. They need to be teachable, communicative and willing to work.

There was also a deeper lesson running beneath the practical advice. Film, the speakers told the class, isn’t a profession reserved for the perfectly credentialed or geographically lucky. The speakers emphasized that students don't need to move to New York City or Los Angeles, or even go to film school. What they do need is determination and curiosity and the ability to keep learning.

That classroom conversation is part of a broader effort by David Shapiro and Semkhor Productions to build a digital cinema pipeline in Sarasota through Suncoast Technical College and local public schools. Through the Creative Empowerment Project (CEP), a collaboration between Florida Winefest & Auction/Caring for Children Charities and Semkhor, the group helped create an accredited Digital Cinema Production program at STC and supports it with scholarships, hands-on training and real production opportunities. 

Shapiro said the goal is to bring productions to Sarasota that can hire students trained here and create entry points for young people who might not otherwise have access to the industry.  Last year, the initiative hosted producer Adam Hendricks, filmmaker Kevin Smith and actress Heather Graham, who screened and discussed her film Chosen Family at Burns Court Cinema. The appearances gave students a chance to hear directly from artists who have written, directed and produced their own work. It’s an approach that mirrors CEP’s mission to connect local talent with the creative and technical realities of modern filmmaking.

That same effort widened beyond the classroom at an intimate gathering at Sugar Champagne Bar in downtown Sarasota, where Graham spoke to a small crowd interested in what it might mean if Sarasota became not just a place where film people visit, but instead where films actually get made.

Graham has worked as an actor for decades and has expanded into writing, directing and producing. She talked about process, mentorship and getting younger people into the work itself. She started acting in school plays, began going on auditions while living outside Los Angeles and landed a role in License to Drive at 17. She also floated the idea of shooting and producing in Sarasota and working alongside students looking for hands-on experience.

What she kept returning to was access. The best way to learn filmmaking, Graham said, is often not in theory but on a set. “Working on a movie is really the best way to learn,” she said, adding that students could benefit from seeing pre-production up close, from location scouting and look books to script work and editing. The value, she suggested, isn’t only technical. Sometimes what a young filmmaker most needs is encouragement and honest feedback at the right moment.

She also spoke candidly about the realities of production. Places attract film shoots, she said, not just because they’re beautiful, but because they offer practical advantages: tax credits, experienced crews and a community that’s open to the work. Without those things, it’s harder to compete. Still, she noted Sarasota’s appeal—the landscape, the energy and the sense that people here aren’t yet numbed by the industry. “It’s beautiful,” she said. “There’s great locations. And people here get excited by the prospect. That attitude is great to work along.”

Sandy Loevner, board president of Florida Winefest & Auction, said Graham’s interest in Sarasota could extend beyond appearances. “She would like to bring some business to Sarasota and see whether there is interest here," Loevner says.

Loevner adds that the broader value of bringing in working talent has been the direct contact with students. “The talent has been instrumental in coming here and offering master classes and Q&As so students can learn directly from them. Heather would be hands-on with the students," she says.

Loevner also framed the program as a practical alternative for students who may not have access to more traditional routes into the business. “Not everyone can afford a four-year education, so we’re providing hands-on training at STC and connecting directly with the students," she says. "We have 15 students, and we’ve given them computers they can take home. They get to keep them when they graduate. Some of these students can’t afford a laptop—that’s who we’re helping.”

In both rooms, the theme was the same. Sarasota is trying to build more than an audience for film culture. It’s trying to build a ladder. Shapiro put it plainly when he described the program’s philosophy: teach students fast and let them get to work.

To learn more about the Creative Empowerment Project and check out more star-studded events, click here.