Sofia Licata ’18 is hard at work this summer—and you just might get to see the fruits of her labor on the big screen. As a production assistant for the Long Island-based production company Face-to-Face Films, the economics major and film studies minor has a front-row seat for the moviemaking process.
Though Licata has always loved storytelling, it wasn’t until she took a couple of Bi-Co film studies and production courses that she realized that film was the medium that suited her best.
“The first two film studies courses I took in college were ‘Postwar Japanese Cinema’ with Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures Erin Schoneveld, and ‘Movies and Mass Politics’ with Mary E. Garrett Alumnae Professor of English Michael Tratner,” she says. “They helped me to appreciate how the cinematography and visuals in a film can further its story and theme. Noticing the complexities and the details involved in the process made me certain that this was an industry I wanted to pursue.”
And pursue it Licata has. Though she has made some short films for her college classes, she is excited that, at Face-to-Face Films, she’ll have the opportunity to work on the set of a feature-length project: The Rabbits, a drama about a group of people from a small town on Long Island whose lives intersect unexpectedly one day.
Currently, Licata’s working in New York City to promote the film on crowdfunding platforms and social media sites. In the fall, however, she’ll start work on set, where she’ll have the usual responsibilities of someone with her job description—setting up craft services, going on errand runs for the producers—as well as, she hopes, some others.
“Because this is a smaller production company,” Licata says, “I’ll be given more responsibility and more of a variety of tasks than I would be given at a larger company, like organizing talent and keeping the shoot on schedule.”
It’ll be good practice for Licata, who plans to write or direct her own project some day.
“With Face-to-Face,” she says, “I’m hoping to get as much experience as I can on set…to learn the necessary skills to make a film of my own.”
“Summer Centered” is a series exploring our students’ Center-funded summer work.
Photo: Sofia Licata ’18, busy promoting The Rabbits on social media sites, types away on her computer in a New York City café. Photo by Alexandra Iglesia ’21.