Film student’s passion for music earns him a $10,000 scholarship

“I have a very cinematic approach to music … growing up, every time I’d see a movie, I’d come home and react to it with music,” says Bernardo Porto, a second-year undergraduate in UNCSA’s School of Filmmaking.

So, when the Taco Bell Foundation asked students to apply for its Liv Más Scholarship with a video that tells the story of their “real, driving passion” in two minutes or less, the challenge seemed made for him. Actually winning a $10,000 scholarship for his submission, however, was more of a surprise.

In his video, which was shot in one day with the help of UNCSA roommate and fellow filmmaker Matt Meredith, Porto talks about his passion for filmmaking, music composition and the effects both have on culture and human compassion.

Porto began looking for and applying to scholarships at the same time he was applying for colleges and continued to do so after he began his college career to help offset the cost. He had already won a $5,000 scholarship for an essay he wrote, so when his mom’s friend told him about the Liv Más Scholarship, he figured he’d give it a shot.

He and Meredith (who he met while attending a UNCSA Filmmaking Summer Intensive) filmed the project in a day. Over the next two weeks, he edited the video and added a score from his extensive library of his own compositions. 

Porto is an aspiring Editing major, but was a musician first—a musician with a cinematic approach to music.

As a high school senior, he made the choice between which career path to pursue: filmmaking or music. He only applied to two colleges, Berklee College of Music and UNCSA, and was accepted at both.

For Porto, UNCSA provides the best of both worlds. “I chose Filmmaking, but UNCSA also has a music school, so I’m still in that environment.” And, he says, “Filmmaking still involves music.”

That’s something that was underscored his freshman year when film editor (and musician) Paul Crowder attended UNCSA as a guest artist to talk about his editing work on the documentary, “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week.”

Crowder emphasized the relationship between writing music and editing film—there’s even an overlap in some of the terminology (take “rhythm” and “pacing” as examples). The work of both comes instinctually, Porto adds, and can evoke immediate emotional reactions.

Porto was in Brazil with his mom visiting family in August 2017 when he learned that the work he’d put into his scholarship submission had paid off. “I got a notification on Twitter that someone had tagged me about winning the scholarship,” he says. When he checked his email, the confirmation was there. 

“My mom immediately started calling people to tell them,” he laughs.

As he says in the video, Porto’s goal was in part to help balance out the cost of college for his parents. “Sometimes it feels selfish to be here, pursuing art,” he says, “and not having an immediate impact on society in a traditional way.”

Although the impact is not immediately measurable, art and music are vital, he adds. The narratives told in filmmaking and books “are empathy machines. When we see a movie that’s from a different language or culture, it shows us what is ‘normal.’ It can completely affect how you see an entire people. That’s very powerful.”

When we see a movie that’s from a different language or culture, it shows us what is "normal." It can completely affect how you see an entire people. That’s very powerful.

Bernardo Porto

“As artists, here, in this school, you really see the good we can do.”

As a second-year student, Porto is still navigating the rigors of film school and what the next few years hold for him.

“I’ve been increasingly interested in getting involved with documentary work and commercial work over chasing narrative fiction projects immediately,” he says. “I just want to make a living in this industry. I trust that whatever happens, I’ll be able to make it work. More than anything else, my network of friends is what gives me confidence in my abilities to succeed in this field.”

by Corrine Luthy