Jada-Grace Gordy | Digital Media Academy

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Meet Jada-Grace Gordy

Digital Media Academy News + Events | July 9th, 2009 by Margaret Lim

As one of the main characters on Terminator 4, nine-year old Jada-Grace Gordy has had extensive experience in front of the camera. She recently, however, came to Digital Media Academy’s Adventures in Movie Making and Special Effects course at UCLA because she wanted to learn what happens behind the scenes.

Working with DMA instructor and UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television graduate Anthony Puente, Jada-Grace has learned what it means to be a storyboard writer, a camera operator, a director and an editor, in addition to being an actress. As she explained to me, “I have learned that directors have to be really specific, and that actors and actresses really have to listen to their directors!” When asked about her experience learning Final Cut Pro, Apple’s premiere software program for film editing, she said, “It’s harder than I thought! At first I had no idea what I was doing, but now it’s really fun. I think editors have the hardest job because they have to decide what scene they like and don’t like.”

Because of DMA’s partnership with Sony, Jada-Grace has also had an opportunity to work with high-end Sony HDV cameras. When asked about her experience being a camera person, she exclaimed, “camera people really have to know what you’re doing before they start shooting!”

Jada-Grace has taken her learning of the entire movie making industry so seriously that mid-week she asked her instructor Anthony if she could have an “extra” assignment, which she would design herself. As it turns out, her extra assignment is a set of very detailed notes on the different roles of movie making!