Olivia Barnes
Somewhere in 1870s America, a handcuffed outlaw walks into town followed by a federal marshal and his deputy. The noon sun burns the dusty street. Folks scurry out of the way. They sense the real show is about to begin. Off to the side, under a wide-brimmed hat, a young woman smiles. This is what she trained for.
Olivia Barnes (’19) knew westerns. She had seen many on TV with her grandfather. As a kid, she was drawn to stories in the form of movies and shows. She enjoyed making videos with her friends using her flip-phone camera. By the time she arrived at Liberty University, she knew she wanted to learn more about the art of storytelling. A couple of courses in filmmaking hooked her interest. She changed her major to a cinematic arts degree.
“I just fell in love with everything,” says Barnes, “It felt like I was in the right place.” Her junior year introduced her to the filmmaking process, starting with very short production projects in which classmates rotated roles in pre-production, production, and post-production phases: “You learn pretty much everything, which is fabulous. . . it made me learn about the production office, and that was where I got my feet wet.”
The production office (PO) is the central hub of a movie production. It manages administration related to communication, logistics, budget, personnel, and other paperwork. It interfaces with everyone involved, supporting the directives of the producers’ and director’s teams.
As her class began working on the set of a feature film, Barnes felt drawn to the PO. She thrived in the work. When the time came for classmates to make their senior thesis films, she volunteered for their producing and PO-coordinating roles.
Barnes says the biggest lesson she learned in the Cinematic Arts program was how to set up tasks for success, not only for herself but for others. “I understood what other people were up against in the industry,” she explains, “like what different departments need, and working on their problem solving and what they do, . . . and it made working life so much easier.” The film school also developed her character with the paradoxical attitudes of confidence and humility. As she puts it, “when you go out [into the media industry], you’re going to know way more than you think you know. I think this is in large part due to the humility of the program and having the outlook of ‘I don’t know everything, and I’m here to learn.’ That’s really served me well in my years outside of the program.”
After graduation, Barnes found work in commercials, a TV show, and church media. In 2021, she applied for a production office coordinator position at a nearby TV network. To her surprise, one of her interviewers was a former acquaintance who used to watch and review her flip-phone videos. She got the job.
Since then, Barnes has worked on several productions, even westerns. Now, she’s part of the shows she used to watch. Looking back, she smiles at the full-circle journey of her own story. “It’s been a wild ride,” she says, then she tips her hat and rides into the blazing sunset.
