Adeboye Olaniyan ’18

NAME: Adeboye Olaniyan ’18

HOMETOWN: Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

WHAT ROLE DID YOU PLAY ON SET: I was the digital imaging technician, so I was on set every day. The fun part was that I didn’t have to start my day at call time, which was usually 8 or earlier. Once I got on set, I was in charge of all the data that was generated. It wasn’t hard, I just had to be very, very careful. I was dealing with all this work; every day more than 15 terabytes were shot. Once a shoot was done, I was the link between the set in Waverly and the editor in California. I would take the cards and dump the footage and the audio, line them up with each other, put in one layer of color correction, take a screen shot for the director of photography, and then export the dailies for the editor.

WHERE DID YOU DO ALL THIS FROM: If the crew was shooting downstairs at the Jensens’ house, I would be set up upstairs or vice versa. I was almost always separated from the action but always on set. I couldn’t be too far away because they only had about six cards, so I would need to dump a card and then get it right back to them.

Adeboye Olaniyan ’18 on the set of This Day Forward

HOW DID YOU GET SUCH AN IMPORTANT ROLE: I kept wondering the same thing. I didn’t have any idea. I had never worked on a set in my life. The night before the first shoot we ran through what I was going to be doing every day, and it dawned on me that I couldn’t make a mistake. On about day five, I asked someone why I was the one doing this. I asked if they were scared I would mess it up. They told me I got a good recommendation so they felt they could trust me. I knew I couldn’t shy away from the responsibility.

HOW DO YOU SEE THIS EXPERIENCE HELPING YOU IN THE FUTURE:  If I were to pursue a career in film, this experience was gold. I had the backside view of how everything works, and I definitely added it to my resume.

DID YOU GET TO KNOW THE JENSENS DURING FILMING: They are really good people, and they welcomed us into their home. Their house was like our home during the movie. They made sure we were welcome and able to do what we needed to get our job done.

HOW DID THIS COMPARE TO YOUR TRADITIONAL COURSEWORK: I have classes that are crazy, but the set was a different kind of crazy. It was intense. We had a very short period of time to get a lot of work done. But we worked as a family, not as a company. Everyone was helping each other to reach a goal. That interpersonal connection created a welcoming and enabling space. On the technology side, I was exposed to new ways of thinking about things and doing things. The director of photography taught me things about cameras I wouldn’t have otherwise known.