Developing a strong love for photography from a young age, Claire Barnett still focuses her creativity on art mediums such as photography, videography, filmmaking, writing and producing short films and playing numerous instruments like guitar and piano, usually accompanied by her fantastic singing voice.
Barnett discussed when she was around 12 years old and got her first phone, a Sony Ericsson, which allowed her to begin making videos, mostly with her two brothers.
Barnett said, “that was when I started just becoming interested in like what filmmaking would look like, and I like always grew up being obsessed with film and TV, but I never thought of it as something that I would actually want to do until much later.”
Barnett studied at UA in Fayetteville for two years and graduated from UCA in 2020 with a degree highlighting her talents in film and communications. Barnett is originally from Little Rock.
“It wasn’t until later that I realized that I wanted to like yeah, write films and make movies and then I started doing photography just sort of as a side job but really fell in love with doing it like whenever I was at UCA.”
Apart from being accepted into multiple bigger schools like Belmont, Barnett ultimately did not want to drive herself into debt for her undergraduate education. Barnett received the Governor’s Scholarship which is only applicable to schools in Arkansas as well.
For attending UCA, “It really was for the program. I mean it is a really like hidden gem sort of program because it’s really small, but like there’s a lot of really great resources that we have there,” Barnett said. “I didn’t really realize that until I got into the program of how actually good of a program that it was.”
Barnett said that her time at UCA “actually was a really great education.”
Barnett is currently continuing her education in film at NYU through a graduate film program. She will receive her MFA after completing the 3-5 year program there.
“It’s super intense and super challenging, but also like incredibly rewarding and really, really fun,” Barnett said.
Barnett explained that there were multiple factors as to why she wanted to continue her education.
“I really wanted to like be able to be like a narrative filmmaker, but I knew that if I just came out of undergrad and like tried to do that, it would be really difficult for me to sort of like make my way and I’ve always wanted to move out of Arkansas.”
Barnett and her husband Josh share a passion for writing and creativity.
Barnett explained that the NYU graduate film program “is giving me a lot of like the connections and the skills that I need to like actually have a career for myself once I get out.”
Barnett plans to continue making short films and advancing her knowledge in the craft of filmmaking, writing and producing.
Claire Barnett can be found on Instagram at clairebarnettcreative. Her released short films “Lullaby” and “Jezabel” can be found at vimeo.com/clairebarnett.
