She’s Up to Snow Good…

I met Kiara Lin in the place many Santa Barbara natives eventually meet–Los Angeles. 

She grew up in Santa Barbara, attending Montessori Center School and Santa Barbara Junior High. Even in her youth, Kiara’s dedication to film was unmistakable. After three years enrolled at Santa Barbara High School, she moved to Michigan to complete her high school career at Interlochen Center for the Arts, graduating with honors and a 4.0 GPA. 

I was immediately drawn to Kiara’s eccentric, kind nature, and inspired by her insatiable ambition as a filmmaker. So when she proposed I help animate her college thesis film, it was a no-brainer.

A year before her senior year even began, she’d started the monumental task of directing, casting, and producing Snow Day, a 10-minute traditionally animated comedy/fantasy short. It follows eight-year-old Iisa (Shelby Rabara) who will do anything to make it snow in Arizona… even if that means summoning the almighty demon Furfur (Jonathan Freeman) to do her bidding. 

Now, two years later, as Kiara submits Snow Day for its film festival run, it felt right to commemorate her massive achievement in this column. I sat with Kiara in the sweltering L.A. heat to reflect on the early influences that ultimately lead to Snow Day.

Q. When did you first begin your exploration in film and media?

A. I was in fourth grade, had been doing theater since the age of four, and wanted to make a movie… because every kid wants to make a movie! I enlisted my best friend and we co-created our concept. I cast my classmates and we shot it every single day at lunch for about a year on Panasonic Camcorders, which to us was IMAX. 

When it came to post-production, I didn’t know the first thing about editing. My parents had a computer that made the dial-up sound, so you can imagine I wasn’t the most tech-savvy. I began volunteering at the local TV station, TVSB, in exchange for use of their editing program. I volunteered there and worked on one of their night shows, Ken Boxer Live, where I worked my way up from a PA to Technical Director, becoming the youngest above-the-line crewmember.

Who or what were your project’s first inspirations?

I was first inspired by my junior high school film and acting teacher, Rich Lashua. With Lashua, we did film and Shakespeare, which was my first taste of something so different from the modalities I had been working with. He’s a champion for the arts in education, something I hope to give back to one day. For college, I went to a little school called Studio School, now bought by the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Studio School’s ideology was: “We don’t want you sitting behind a textbook for three years. We want you in the editing room, your hand on the camera, making the spreadsheets.” Now I’m walking out of college with four SAG Union shorts, over 18 credits as a producer across shorts and music videos, and experience in other roles I’ll treasure forever. 

So you’d say that, overall, you fit most neatly into a producing role. What is it about producing and casting that excites you the most? 

One of my greatest joys in producing is facilitating the director’s vision. As a producer, it’s not your job to tell the actors how to act, but to facilitate the space they act in. I love knowing that people are able to create in a safe space because of me and – I’m going to be real here – I love spreadsheets.

Regarding casting, authentic casting is the most important to me. I want to make sure that if we’re going to tell stories with diverse characters, they have the actors and consult to back it. Even though Iisa being Filipina doesn’t have anything to do with the plot itself, it’s still an important part of her identity and needs to be represented properly. I was so lucky to work with passionate talents and cultural consultants who shared the same dedication as me!

What was something you learned on the production of Snow Day that you’ll be taking into future artistic endeavors? 

As I’ve found more people who are as passionate as I am, one lesson I’ve had the pleasure of learning is that you can trust others with your vision. You just need to find the right people. Being able to delegate was key on Snow Day. As much as I wish I could animate it, that’s not my skill. I was able to find the right talent to uplift and facilitate the story in ways that I could only dream of. Their minds, hands, and hearts made Snow Day! My team is the beating heart of Snow Day, and I’m so excited for the world to see it.  

To learn more about the cast, crew, and lore of Snow Day, visit https://kiaraquelin.wixsite.com/kiaraquelin/snow-day, or follow their Instagram: @snowdaytheshort. Snow Day will be available to watch online after its festival run!