We were thrilled to talk with Graduate student Eric Campbell about his time at Temple and his film's entry into Temple's Diamond Screen MFA Showcase October 11th at the Reel (don’t miss it)!
Eric's 2025 short film "Dig" won Best Narrative Film at last year's Diamond Screen Film Festival, and this fall, his thesis film "Confessions" screens at The Reel for the first time.
In an interview, Eric expanded on what he feels about Temple and his filmmaking experiences.
Q: Would you like to talk a bit about your undergraduate film experience?
A: I love Temple. I had a great experience. I actually wasn't always a film student. I started off as a finance major in Fox School of Business, and then, I just had this longing for the arts and to reconnect with it, and I talked to some advisors, and they got me into TFMA.
Q: With regards to the showcase in October, what, are you willing to share about "Confessions" before we officially get to see it?
A: "Confessions" follows, a Catholic priest named Christopher who has a life crisis, and he must choose between his dedication to the church, and a woman that he loves. I grew up Catholic, so I have a connection to that. The goal was to humanize the Catholic priest as a person, because a lot of times we mythologize it as this, like, some great altruistic figure, but it's just a guy in a collar, leading a congregation. It was a culmination of all the skills I learned at Temple. We shot on 35-millimeter film that we got from Kodak, which was a connection I built at Temple. I shot on all Panavision cameras and lenses as a recipient of the New Filmmaker Grant from Panavision, which was an honor, and it was very cool. Stuff that I learned here as a grad student on how to apply for grants, and just how to connect with people. Stuff I learned from Leanne Erickson, Warren Bass, Tommy Butler, and Jen Schneider, and all these really great professors I've had along the way.
Q: How would you compare your graduate production experience to your undergrad production experience? Would you say it's a bit of a different world?
A: Oh, totally. I think when I was an undergrad, I was convinced I was going to be a cinematographer. I was actually shooting other people's projects, and so was one of my best friends, Matt Connolly, who's the DP of "Confessions" and who has shot all my other work, and we kind of came to an impasse of, like, "all right, Matt, you're better at this than I am.", And then I kind of got into writing and directing. Undergrad was more figuring out like "what do I like to do" and "how do I do it," you know, in the basic form. When I left undergrad, I spent a couple years doing commercial work and music videos. Working on some short films with some friends, helping to produce. And then when I came back to grad school, my mindset was to get better at every single area, and really hone my skills and hone my craft. And, yes, there is a work level bump up in grad school, and an expectation that the work is gonna be a little bit more polished.
But there's also a lot of learning outside of that that has to do with film studies and theory that really helped influence my writing. And I had some really great professors here who helped with that. The experience feels more professional as a grad student, because you are working while you're here. I was working in undergrad but doing stuff outside of film. I discovered a love for teaching in grad school as well, that I have carried over into teaching here at Temple.
Q: So, you're Philly born, and a lot of your recent work has been shot in Philly, how would you say Temple and the Philadelphia area contributed to your undergraduate and graduate film experience?
A: Yeah, Philly is everything to me. I've lived here now since 2015 inside the city, and I grew up in Newtown Square, which is in Delaware County, outside the city. And each have their own distinct culture, Philly and Delaware County, but there's a blend where it all… I bet if someone from another state came in, they'd be like, oh, it's all Philly, but, people inside Philadelphia know it's culturally different and, it's in there no matter what. All of it kind of just leaks into my work one way or another, subconsciously, because Philly's a part of me.
Q: what would you say to someone who's just starting the FMA program or maybe someone who's considering the MFA program?
A: I'm currently adjunct for a section of Film Foundations, and I tell them all the time: "commit yourself to it." Work hard. Like, don't just kind of do it because it's an assignment, do it because it's a project, you get to express yourself, and make it uniquely your own. Don't necessarily worry about how polished it looks right off the bat in undergrad. You don't need to make Christopher Nolan films. It doesn't need to be that level, but it does need to be original to you, and tell your story, and once you kind of unlock that ability, then you can get better at the technical filmmaking aspects of it. I think for graduate school, it's more "figure out the polish," because a lot of students come in as grad students and kind of already know how to express themselves, which is great.
Figure out how to do that within the confines of a film, get better at whatever you're trying to do. So, if you're a screenwriter, become a better screenwriter, have a tighter narrative, tell the story the way that you want to tell it, have really, really well-developed characters. Or if you're a director, figure out how to run the set. Work with actors. Know all the departments so that you can run it. And if you're a cinematographer, know that camera inside and out. Not just one, but all the cameras we have. Our courses do a really good job of exposing students to that in the graduate school.
But there's still an element of like committing yourself all the way to it. And I think in anything you do in life, if you commit yourself to it, you'll end up being pretty darn good.
Q: What are some things you're looking forward to in the next year since you're graduating as an MFA student?
A: I'm really looking forward to teaching more. It's just something, again, I discovered in grad school here that I really loved, that I didn't know, but I really, really love doing it.
I'm working on a couple of feature scripts. One of them has started to be sent out. We're looking for some funding for that project, trying to get it off the ground so that it'd be a possibility to make it, which would be really cool, and I'm gonna keep writing and keep working. Right now, "Confessions" has been submitted to a bunch of film festivals, and I'm waiting to hear back. I'm really hopeful that it gets to play, and my cast and crew get to see it, and, you know, everyone gets to see it on the big screen.
----
It was lovely to hear from Eric about his experiences and we're so excited to see "Confessions" at the Diamond Screen MFA Showcase October 11th! RSVP Today!
Diamond Screen Presents: Temple Film and Media Arts - MFA Showcase
Sunday, October 11, 2026 @ 2pm – at THE REEL
Student Center – 1755 N. 13th Street