Spotlight: Erica Becker

Who are you?

Hi, my name is Erica Becker. I am 16. I'm from New York, and I wanna be a director and a screenwriter.

How did you come to realize your passion for filmmaking?

It was about 2 years ago, in my freshman year, I realized I always loved to write stories and tell stories, and my friend, his name is Ben. He came up to me and he said “we need a writer for our film class,” it's Cougar TV. I said “yeah lets do it,” and we started working together on a little skit for the morning announcements in our school, and ever since then I’ve been the head writer of the class and the club, and that's really been it.

What kind of films do you create?

When I write my films I usually tend to stick with horror or sci-fi. Sometimes I dabble a little bit in comedy depending on what I'm writing, but I usually stick to horror or sci-fi.

What/who are your biggest influences and inspirations?

Honestly, when I write, my biggest inspirations just happen to be music that I listen to, movies that I watch, or shows. I tend to get inspiration based off the stories that I find most creative and of course, most interesting

How do you think your background has influenced the stories you tell?

Living in New York helps me tell the stories that I tell, and I say that because it's kind of the background that I'm surrounded by. I love the city, so I love writing stories that take place in said city. It makes for great storytelling I think, especially when bringing ideas to the screen. Just having that particular setting when you’re filming is fantastic, and I think it works for relatively any story that you need to tell in an urban setting. Cinematography-wise it works great. Writing-wise it's very flexible, and I think it honestly influences a lot of the stories that I happen to write

What’s your favorite or proudest work or achievement?

Recently, I wrote a short film. It's called “The Room at the End of the Corridor.” It's a very good short film, I think. We haven't filmed it yet. It's gonna be filmed next month, but I wrote it, I'm going to direct it, I'm going to edit it, and it looks fantastic already, the script. I've shown it to numerous people. I think it's one of my best works that I've ever written. Aside from that, of course, going to UCLA. That’s one of my proudest accomplishments and meeting all the wondrous people there. Besides that, the short film, I have to say, is one of my proudest achievements. I think that it really took my writing to a whole new level and elevated the potential to which i can write to so im really really proud of that

Describe your creative process.

I take out my phone. I open the notes app, and I start writing. That's really it. I can't necessarily write on a laptop or a computer or anything like that. For me, writing feels more natural when I type with my phone. It works differently for everybody. Some people are paper writers, some people work naturally with a keyboard, but for me, I am a phone user. It works great when I write dialogue. It helps it to be so much more natural, and it just works best for me. So, that's really it. I just start writing whenever I have motivation, and that’s the creative process.

How do you balance school and filmmaking?

Well for me, I'm lucky when it comes to school and filmmaking because I have a class in my last period that is designated for film. It's literally a broadcasting class, and after school, I have a broadcasting club. Since I am the head writer of both, it’s relatively easy for me to manage both. So, I get my work done there, and it helps further my filmmaking at the same time while also getting a grade for school. I'm lucky to have that. I know not everybody does, but I'm really grateful that I get the opportunity to do so.

What are your plans for the future?

I just wanna continue with filmmaking as far as I can. My hope is to be a director with writing on the side and go to a school for filmmaking and hopefully become successful based off that. I see myself either ending up in California to do school, or just staying in New York or going to Massachusetts. Those are 3 great states for filmmaking, and yeah, that's really it, but I'm really excited for what it has in store.