By Kristen Haga
A teacher who continues to learn.
Physics and Earth/Space teacher Shannon Sahabi has taken extra roles in famous films to learn about filmmaking.
“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher but when I was in high school I wanted to be a filmmaker,” Sahabi said. “I have no aspirations to be an actor.”
Sahaba explains that if she believed she had a chance of becoming a successful filmmaker, she would have stuck with it and majored in it throughout highschool.
“When I applied to UT to be an RTF major, which is rated television film, I didn’t get in because I didn’t have a resume because I hadn’t been in anything,” Sahabi said. “That’s when the film school at UT became really popular was the year that I got there,” Sahabi said.
Sahabi was enrolled in an introduction to film class her freshman year of college, but was unable to major or continue her learning career in this subject.
“Like I said, they didn’t let me into the college of communications so I couldn’t major in it,” Sahabi said. “Everyone I knew that majored in it are not filmmakers and they’ve spent a lot of money trying to make their own student films.”
Since college, she has continued her learning career by observing films as an extra and has been on set for Miss Congeniality, The Rookie, Bernie, and an episode of Friday Night Lights.
“For Miss Congeniality, it was just an ad in the newspaper,” Sahabi said. “Since I was in their database, they were the ones that contacted me about Friday Night Lights and The Rookie.”-
She came across these opportunities to learn more about the filmmaking industry and how the directors prepared their sets for filming.
“I wish I had speaking lines but I was just an extra,” Sahabi said. “ I got lucky in both Miss Congeniality and Bernie [since] you could see me in the films.”
Sahabi has even had the opportunity to be on set with a couple celebrities.
“In Miss Congeniality, Sandra Bullock was not in my scene so I didn’t get to see her,” Sahabi said. “[I did see] William Shatner, the one who played Captain Kirk in the old Star Trek.”
Her favorite film to be on set was Bernie because she was also able to meet Mathew McConaughhey and the director Richard Linklater, amazed by his authenticity and drive as a director.
“With Bernie, I went up to the director because he’s one of my favorites,” Sahabi said. “I just went up to him to thank him for the opportunity.”
She was unable to interact with the rest of the actors but was thankful for her opportunities to be on set with them.
“It is a lot of sitting around, in fact we were in this old bowling alley, waiting to be shuttled over into the set,” Sahabi said. “When we got there, it was dinner break for the crew, so we [got] back on the shuttles and headed back to the bowling alley. Before we could’ve done any filming, we had already been there for over six hours or so, then we went back and finally did it for a couple of takes.”
Being involved in the production of Bernie was such an amazing experience for Sahabi and she hopes to continue to be in other films in her future.
“I felt excited to be included in the production of a movie, [especially one where I got to be around] an actor and director I loved,” Sahabi said. “It was a thrilling experience and I wish I could do it more.”
Filming, even as an extra, can be very overwhelming and Sahabi felt a rush of adrenaline as she was witnessing the production first-hand.
“In my scene in Bernie, I could not hear the director because he was so far away,” Sahabi said. “They rushed past me and I was like ‘oh [my] is this real?’”
She is very grateful for her opportunities to continue to learn and grow in this field as she finds it very interesting and realizes she always has room for improvement.
“[Being on set] is so cool,” Sahabi said. “I pretend I’m all cool and in my element, but I am just trying to learn as much as I can about how they set things up, cinematography, and where the cameras go and what the director says.”
Even after years of teaching, she knows in the filmmaking industry she is still just a student and takes every chance she gets to learn from others.
“It’s a fun learning experience and I don’t know why other people want to do it other than being in the movie,” Sahabi said. “I don’t really care about being in the movie, I just want to learn and this was the only way I could do [that].”
She hopes that everyone will continue to follow their dreams and accept every opportunity they are given.
“Whenever I saw the new commercials for whatever that new iPhone is, it records with Dolby vision, which is better quality, so they were showing amateur filmmakers filming with their iPhone,” Sahabi said. “I remember thinking ‘maybe I should switch to iPhone,’ so I can make my own films.”
She hopes to use this to continue her screenplay which she started in college and continue her work as a minor filmmaker.
“Hopefully everyone gets [the chance] to do something they’re really interested in like me,” Sahabi said. “[I hope everyone has the chance to] put themselves out there.”