Anna Barron

I am a beginning producer, but I have a lot of experience in the film industry which started in 1998 when as a freshman in college I "took a break," and moved to Wilmington, NC to work on films.

Since then I have worked on several projects-mostly on the production side (though I have experience in post as well); such as "Dawson's Creek," and numerous other independent shorts, features and corporate commercials. It didn't take long for producers to noticed that I had an innate ability to lead and I worked my way up the crew to (2nd 2nd AD) to (1st AD) by the time I was 20 (which is a huge accomplishment for someone so young).

In 2001 I returned to college and got a B.A. in Mass Communications with a second degree in English from Briar Cliff University (2004) as well as a M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communications from The University of Iowa in 2007 (I'm 29 now).

 When I graduated in 2007 I was given the opportunity to head the journalism program at Iowa Western Community College. I could have left the program as it was, but I knew it had the potential for greatness so within the first 3 months of being hired I created a curriculum appropriate for a journalism program and re-designed the layout of the newspaper to take it from a tabloid black & white newsletter to a full color broadsheet publication. In addition, advertising and public relations became my responsibility (and new-found passion) as I raised over 4K in revenue between 2007 & 2009.

My goal was to make something out of nothing; In other words, to make the student newspaper, The Rover the best community college newspaper in Iowa-a goal that has been realized. I am ambitious and I challenge my students to be more than they think they can be; to dream big, and make their dreams their reality. My teaching philosophy is simple; lead by inspiration and challenge students to learn and do; and they will. This is how I will lead this production company.

I took responsibility for every aspect of the production of The Rover and taught my students how to use the programs needed for design and layout; which required mastery of Adobe’s InDesign CS3 Suite. Basically what I did was take responsibility for the newspaper and journalism program from the graphic arts department and put the design and layout in the hands of the students (which is how it is in the "real world" of journalism, and how it should have been from the beginning).

 Unfortunately, due to budget cuts IWCC was forced to eliminate the journalism program (and my position) at the end of this year.

 Fortunately, being laid off gives me the perfect opportunity (and a second chance) to explore my true passion-which is film making.