Dylan Giovanetto
If you grow up beside a “dollar theater,” you’re destined to love movies. And if your father is a teacher, you’re destined to spend much of your summers at that theater while receiving lessons about how films are made. Such was the childhood of Dylan Giovanetto (2016). At age 5, he was handed his first movie ticket to see Jurassic Park (1993). By the end of that summer, he had seen it several times. Movies became his obsession. Even in high school, math and science could not distract him from filmmaking. He often employed his handycam, his computer, and his friends to create videos, learning by doing.
That learning style made Giovanetto a perfect fit for Liberty University’s Cinematic Arts programs of study. There, he joined a cohort of film-obsessed students and practiced making short films with professional equipment and film set protocols. Those cycle projects, says Giovanetto, were “my first real example of what onset life was. And you know, it was fun and exciting, especially when you’re with your friends and people that you go to class with. . . I totally understand that love for set life, but I’ve always known that my skills and where I shine is more in the computer, like behind the computer screen, working with the story after it’s all been filmed.” He dived deeper into the art of editing, eventually becoming an editing assistant on his class’s feature film, God’s Compass (2016).
Giovanetto’s passion for learning continued into a master’s degree, which allowed him to return to the Cinematic Arts Department as a Graduate Student Assistant. In that position, he expanded his skills in sound design while helping undergraduates make their cycle projects and thesis films. He offered this wisdom: “What I learned while filming my thesis ended up being way more important than the actual thesis film.” Often, he says, film students want to make an artful statement or an award-winning production in school, but Giovanetto took a different approach: “My little cycle group, we kind of learned early on that we were going to treat each cycle project as a lesson, to learn something that we want to do for a thesis [film]. . . and that, I think, is a very valuable thing for learning.”
Film school gave Giovanetto a network of alumni who could connect him to jobs. After earning his second degree, those contacts helped him secure interesting opportunities in various locations. Then the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) hired Dylan as a research producer in Nashville. When the COVID-19 pandemic stalled the film industry, a non-profit organization invited him to help them in England for six months. Afterward, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and got a job on the Fox network’s TV show, Lego Masters (2020). Now, Giovanetto works for Great American Pure Flix as a full-time remote editor with occasional set visits to capture behind-the-scenes footage and interview well-known people. He loves the combination of working at home and on set.
For graduates looking to succeed in TV and film, Giovanetto advises learning how to get along with everyone. The industry, especially the faith-based segment, is small: “you bump into the same people over and over and over again. . . As long as you’re responsible, and you show people kindness and courtesy and work hard,” you’ll be remembered and, hopefully, hired.
In fact, if you commit to learning both skill and character, you may discover the same truth as Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park: “Life finds a way.”
