Iowa may not have nearly the same level of glitz and glamor as the Hollywood Hills, but the state’s filmmaking network is strong. Thanks to filmmaker communities like the one present in Iowa City, the state is becoming more of a destination for film productions every year.

Film festivals like FilmScene’s Refocus, the University of Iowa’s Iowa City Documentary Film Festival, and Des Moines’ Interrobang Film Festival have cultivated a dedicated crowd of independent filmmakers. The plethora of places to show projects has drawn a lot of aspiring directors, many of whom end up in the UI graduate program.

One such graduate is Arman Hodasefat, an independent filmmaker who earned an M.A. in Film Studies from the University of Tehran in 2017 before becoming an MFA student at the UI. In his time in the graduate program, which is coming to an end this semester, Hodasefat has shot four independent short films.

“I had to balance my classes to take more independent study or workshop-type courses to free up time for me to work on my films,” Hodasefat said. “In my first year at Iowa, I was taking a lot of heavy film theory-related classes, and on top of being in a new country, it was a bit much.”

When he isn’t shooting films or taking classes, Hodasefat is a teaching assistant for the Department of Cinematic Arts’ Modes of Film and Video Production course. Here, Hodasefat has met collaborators he could depend on throughout his graduate program.

“I’ve worked with Negar Torabi Soufi Amlashi, who is in the graduate program with me and teaches a section of Modes. Taryn Neal, my editor on ‘Home No Return,’ was in one of my Modes sections. The class structure allows you to meet so many people,” Hodasefat said.

With the infrastructure of production classes, students in graduate and undergraduate programs alike find collaborators and get a chance to experiment with set dynamics, but sometimes filmmakers want to work with someone more specialized.

Hodasefat’s favorite aspect of directing is working with actors, so he frequently turns to the UI Department of Theatre Arts for casting.

While most of the cast and crew of his four shorts, “Harmony,” “Golden Hour,” “Mammoth,” and “Home No Return,” consist of cinematic arts students, theater students have proved very useful to Hodasefat’s vision.

“These students are so open and up to any challenge. They’re willing to perform just for the experience or practice,” Hodasefat said. “I don’t work with non-actors. I make sure everyone on set is perfect, from the production designer, cinematographer, to the boom, it is perfect. But from the moment I say action until I say cut, it is the job of the actors to get us to the finish line.”

Constructing the emotional worlds of his characters is the best part of the process for Hodasefat. He wants to show his actors how to live through their roles.

For “Harmony,” he spent hours with the lead actresses apart, developing their characters. Hodasefat held off letting the pair meet for as long as he could before finally letting them interact without guidance and discover their dynamic naturally.

This kind of experimentation is a highlight of the production process and something improved by being in a campus setting with ample access to enthusiastic actors-in-training. Hodasefat’s films will be screened at FilmScene on May 10 at 4 p.m. as part of his thesis presentation. Actresses Jennifer Hogan and Leigh Ann Erickson will join co-writer Tatum Cacek in a moderated discussion to further discuss Hodasefat’s method.

Undergraduate students, both past and current, utilize the support systems that make filmmaking so accessible in Iowa City. The university’s equipment checkout system has been especially integral to two young filmmakers.

Isaac Smith and Adrian Carmenate have been through the UI film program and are familiar with the equipment the UI provides. Smith, a 2024 graduate, and Carmenate, a fourth-year student, met through film classes and have been wanting to develop a feature film for a while.

While access to equipment and eager-to-help cast or crew make the idea of putting a feature film together more tangible, Carmenate and Smith have run into their fair share of tribulations.

“Every week, we check if a location has gotten back to us about our request to use their space to shoot. A lot of times, it’s a no, so we are deciding where to shoot on a weekend-by-weekend basis,” Carmenate said.

Their film is called “Horseboy,” an absurdist road trip comedy Smith first wrote for the university’s 10-minute play festival. Carmenate and Smith have been using locations around Iowa City to shoot their film. From friends’ backyards to Smith’s sister’s garage, the duo runs a truly independent production.

“We’re on a shoestring budget, but I don’t know if we even have a string,” Smith joked.

“Or shoes,” Carmenate added. “But I think we at least have socks.”

The two said there is a pressure to appease the crew and ensure nobody’s time is wasted since most of the people on set are friends working on the film as a favor or to pay back for help on a past project.

The film community on campus largely exists on a favor-for-favor basis, where friends from production classes recruit each other for each other’s projects. Carmenate and Smith weren’t overly picky about who they brought on set, since a comedy has a more looser vibe.

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“Some people have theater and acting experience, but some people have never seen a camera before,” Smith said. “Our friend Delaney Waterman put out some feelers for people outside of our bubble. We got engineering majors trying out, some dentistry students showed up … It was surprising.”

While neither filmmaker had gone on their own to make a feature before, working on crews in the past brought valuable experience to this project. Carmenate served as director of photography on “The Womenists,” a feature film written and directed by Ashley Cimarolli and Sophia Perez.

“I had no idea what I was doing when they brought me on. I remember I could hardly white balance a shot, I could barely use a camera,” Carmenate said. “I’m glad they trusted me because by the end, I felt way more comfortable.”

The support between student productions is what keeps people inspired to keep creating. Even after graduation, filmmakers like Smith choose to stay in Iowa City to work on their projects because they know there will be dedicated people to help out.

“It’s all a collaborative effort. Everyone here is super supportive, even the professors. It’s the kind of thing you know is rare and you can’t get everywhere,” Smith said. “I just hope fruit snacks are enough of a thank you for everyone because I don’t know if we have the budget for much else.”

Managing the stresses of a microbudget film wouldn’t have been possible for Smith or Carmenate without Bijou Film Board Executive Director Kat Trout-Baron. Trout-Baron is a producer on “Horseboy,” handling the organizational elements of production and creating schedules.

From the first meeting with the directors, they figured out a way to break the long work into smaller portions to ensure the project had enough time to be the quality piece the crew hoped for.

“Every month, I checked with cast and crew to see what their availability was,” Trout-Baron said.  “Just focus on one month at a time and then see what we can film.”

This was not Trout-Baron’s first time being the producer for a project, which allowed them to work so efficiently on this one.

“I knew for certain what I would do right, which was not panic, not try to do everything at once, just take it a step at a time,” Trout-Baron said. “You don’t need to rush it because if you rush it, then you feel like it’s messy.”

Once the arduous production cycle is complete, filmmakers must survive post-production before screenings can begin. Second-year students Payton Hilton and Riley Gravert are currently in the final stage of their short film “Soma.”

The pair assembled their cast and picked their script through Student Video Productions, a campus organization that produces short films and video projects. While production was the most fun part of the process for Hilton and Gravert, they are both set on getting their movie shown by any means necessary.

“At the end of the year, SVP hosts a screening of all the projects they do over the semester, and after that, I think we’re going to submit it to as many film festivals as we can,” Hilton said.

Gravert and Hilton experienced several setbacks while filming. Props broke or were never purchased, a planned crane shot had to be handmade as the crane did not fit in the budget, and footage was lost.

“We needed a fake knife, but we just somehow didn’t order it,” Gravert said. “So, the night we needed the knife, I had to make one out of a Pringles can. It looks pretty good for the shot.”

Despite the occasional mishap, the student directors are still optimistic about how the short film will turn out. Although Hilton and Gravert have both worked on projects before “Soma,” they have all been smaller in size.

“This one was a lot more intense, but I feel like it will pay off,” Hilton said.

Students and professionals alike are the backbone of Iowa City’s filmmaking community. Iowa’s support for the arts is stronger than in most midwestern states, at least that’s how Hodasefat characterizes it.

“All these major cities in Iowa are like hubs for independent filmmaking,” Hodasefat said. “The state provides financial support for productions, applied grants, and things like that. The support in Iowa City is about the people. There are always people in school and out of school willing to join a crew.”