Although 27-year-old Eric Schwartz said he’s been down a lot of different paths in his life, which have all had their ups and downs, he has finally found his true passion – filmmaking.
Discovering his passion for filmmaking, however, didn’t come until after he explored a few different paths.
A Battle Ground native, Schwartz attended Battle Ground High School and participated in the Battle Ground Fire Cadet Program. After graduating from high school in 2003, Schwartz said he volunteered for the Battle Ground Fire Department for a while and then, in 2005, he volunteered with the American Red Cross and was flown to Louisiana to help with the relief effort for Hurricane Katrina. He spent five months in Louisiana. When he returned to Battle Ground, Schwartz said he found that he really enjoyed helping people. So, in 2006, he joined the U.S. Navy to be a FMF Corpsman at the age of 21.
After boot camp and corpsman school. Schwartz said he was sent to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He was assigned to First Battalion Ninth Marines Infantry Bravo Third Platoon as a medic. Schwartz was deployed to Ramadi, Iraq in March 2008 and returned to Battle Ground in the spring of 2010.
Schwartz said his interest in filmmaking started while he was actually in Iraq.
“When I was in Iraq, with what little down time I had, I found I was making slideshows with pictures I had taken,” Schwartz said. “I thought nothing of it at the time, but when I returned to Battle Ground, I was suffering from an injury and PTSD. I felt lost without a goal or passion. I received amazing help from the Vancouver V.A. and I showed one of my counselors one of my slideshows and told her how I enjoyed making them. She told me some people did this for a career and encouraged me to investigate.”
Schwartz said he found himself at the Art Institute of Portland attempting to become a visual graphics major. However, the adviser he talked to told him he seemed more like a film guy.
“She then explained the Digital Film and Video program to me and I have been hooked on filmmaking ever since,” Schwartz said.
Schwartz will receive his bachelor’s degree in Digital Film and Video in June 2013, and he is currently working on his senior thesis, which is a short film and will be the biggest film he has produced so far in his filmmaking career. The film, titled The Void, is about two normal girls, Frankie and Emma, who live in the town of Oak Ridge, where children go missing frequently. The town of Oak Ridge has a legend of a monster called the Void that lives in Oak Ridge Forest outside of the town. The legend says that the monster kidnaps children who wander to close too its forest.
After hearing an announcement on television inviting viewers of Frankie’s favorite show based on female super hero Danger Dee to find a mystery of their own to solve and win a guest appearance on the show, Frankie decides her and Emma will find the missing children of Oak Ridge to win the contest.
Since Battle Ground is Schwartz’s hometown, he will actually be filming some of The Void around the Battle Ground Village area. Schwartz said he has been in post-production for the film since October 2012 and the principle photography began this February. He said the whole production will be completed by June 2013 and from there he plans to put the film in numerous film festivals. Schwartz said The Void will premiere at the Hollywood Theater in Portland June 13, 2013 (dates are tentative).
Through his education, Schwartz said he has worked on all kinds of films, from narrative to documentary pieces. He has been the assistant director for five senior pieces so far and said he has also made a few short narrative films dealing with the supernatural with a suspenseful tone. Schwartz also recently posted a “man on the street” interview piece he did in Portland titled “Why do you think people believe Portland is weird?” It has been posted on YouTube and Schwartz said it has received 3,000 views so far.
“I have always loved the movies,” Schwartz said. “One of my favorite memories of my childhood was when my mother took me out of school for the day to see Jurassic Park on the big screen. I think it took me a while to find my true passion for filmmaking though. When I make a film and I see a person watch it for the first time, whether it makes them laugh, cry or scream out loud, I feel like I created something meaningful.”
To find out more about Schwartz’s film The Void, visit the film website at http://schwartz1196.wix.com/the-void.
