The Daily Orange is a nonprofit newsroom that receives no funding from Syracuse University. Consider donating today to support our mission.

Syracuse University juniors Griffin Goldstein and Grace Asch didn’t expect to start a new student film club when they began working on a group film project during their sophomore year.

The two television, radio and film majors were tasked with telling the story of a person with anxiety for a sophomore year film project. They both felt the importance of putting in the work to make the short film “as authentic as possible” rather than just getting the assignment done with, Asch said.

After the assignment was completed, they thought about working on other projects together before deciding to create their club, K-Selected Pictures.

The film group aims to tell untold stories and offer voices and perspectives that aren’t often heard in the film industry and in everyday life. A primary goal of the group is to “challenge a lot of the media” seen in today’s culture and tell stories from diverse perspectives, said Goldstein, who serves as the club’s president.

So far, K-Selected Pictures has worked on two projects. Both are episodes in the series “6FEETDEEP,” which aims to be a platform for artists to express their creative freedoms, Goldstein said. Episode 1 of the series is available to view on the group’s YouTube page.

The club derived its name from the biology term K-selected species, which refers to animal species that have fewer offspring but do more parenting and nurturing, such as humans and elephants. The idea of fully developing and supporting a project throughout its growth really resonated with the vision that Goldstein and Asch had for the group.

Grace Asch (left) and Griffin Goldstein named the club after K-selected species, which are animal species who have fewer offspring but do more parenting and nurturing, such as humans and elephants. Wendy Wang | Contributing Photographer

“These little movies are our children (and) we want them to be great and we want them to be impactful,” said Asch, the club’s vice president. “You raise a kid and you obviously want them to have an impact on the world, and that’s the same feeling we have about these films.”

To accomplish its goal of telling genuine stories, K-Selected Pictures emphasizes the value of listening to ideas from everyone involved. Regardless of seniority or experience, anyone can have a good and important idea, Goldstein and Asch said.

Goldstein said credit often goes to the individual who created a work of art, though he believes that producing art and film should be a “collaborative process” that values the voices of everyone involved. He and Asch have worked hard to create a team-oriented atmosphere when on set for a K-Selected Pictures project.

In the first episode of “6FEETDEEP,” Goldstein read a poem he wrote. He hoped to show how poetry and film are similar forms of art and wanted to contrast the language of the poem with visual depictions of the imagery and metaphors.

Marco Fernandes, the club’s secretary, believes that everyone involved is really supportive of one another’s ideas. As a finance major, Fernandes said he is new to hands-on filming and production.

Though K-Selected Pictures is new to campus, Goldstein and Asch hope to expand the club and continue producing films. Most of all, the two want to continue telling stories they believe are underrepresented in modern film and to provide a platform for the voices who want to tell them.

“I think once you reach a certain point where you think there’s nothing else for you to learn or there’s nothing new for you to hear, I think you’re sort of losing as a human being,” Goldstein said. “What is that next beautiful story? Where’s that coming from? Who is going to tell it that hasn’t been given a chance to tell it yet?”

Published on November 3, 2020 at 10:56 pm

Contact Abby: avpresso@syr.edu | @abbyvp08