Director Liz Hinlein Talks VR in Filmmaking and the No. 1 Skill Filmmakers Need (Part 1)

Liz Hinlein’s filmmaking career showcases an artist who embraces emerging mediums like virtual reality to connect the past with the present. Before graduating with an MFA in Cinematography from the American Film Institute Conservatory, Hinlein grew up in Haverford, Pennsylvania, alongside her twin brother, where early experiences helped shape her creative vision.

Known for her innovative approach to storytelling, Hinlein is passionate about creating socially impactful work — most recently seen in her VR documentary, “Attention Move: This is America.” Her career underscores the power of film as a tool to educate and inspire action. Beyond her filmmaking, Hinlein has taught as a professor at USC and UCLA. She also served as Creative Director of Filmmaking & Cinematography at the New York Film Academy, where she spearheaded the 20/20 Series, a collection of conversations with forward-thinking artists offering insights into craft and creativity.

In Part 1 of our interview, Alexa Pellegrini for FilmSchool.org speaks with Hinlein about her experience at AFI, tips for gaining admission to top-tier West Coast film schools, and the creative process behind her VR documentary.

Editor’s note: This interview took approximately 1 hour and is a total of 10 pages. Part 2 (5 pages) is available to our Supporting Members, without whom in-depth articles and interviews like this one would not be possible, as FilmSchool.org is 100% advertisement-free. Supporting Members also enjoy access to our database that tracks upwards of 4,000 film school applications and the full Acceptance Data statistics for each film program that helps demystify common questions about how to construct a winning portfolio, ideal GPAs and GRE scores, and much more.

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AP: Can you walk us through your educational journey, from your time at NYU Tisch to later attending the American Film Institute Conservatory?​

Liz Hinlein: Did it set me up for success? Well, I discovered film at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I went to a small Quaker school. I had a great, super-liberal arts upbringing — no football, friends don't fight. That kind of thing.

I wanted to go to a big ‘rah-rah’ kind of school. I begged my parents to send me to Berkeley, but my overprotective lion-mom said, ‘No way.’ So, I ended up at the University of Wisconsin. I went from a graduating class of 80 to around 40,000 people, some crazy-pants number. At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, I took a film class, and in this film class, two things happened.

First, I saw the Bertolucci film "The Conformist" on the big screen, which is a beautiful film that everyone should see. Vittorio Storaro shot it, and it was very artistic, stunning, emotional, and big on the subtext. I literally felt like my version of a higher power was telling me, ‘This is what you're going to do.’ It was so clear to me that this is what I was going to do — make films.

Simultaneously, I was a coxswain for the crew team. I made a short film about bodies in motion and water, basically, because there were a lot of cute boys on the crew team. And with that film, I got into NYU on my first try. So the moral of the story is to make films about something you are interested in.

At NYU there were very few women in my class and a lot of guys who all thought they were Spielberg from a very young age.It was very intimidating.

But at the same time, I loved going to a cool film school. The main thing was learning about films and making them. It was the first time I delved into being an artist and had the pushback of having competition with other artists. My first short film ended up going to the Berlin Film Festival. Going to film school, if you're sort of a film geek or tech geek like I am, is like going to Mecca. It is intense, and it is cool.

What was AFI’s cinematography program like? Did it fulfill your expectations?​

LH: I mean, there's the vision of what AFI would be, and then the reality of what it is. As a commercial director I worked with a lot of DPs around the world, and I always received feedback like, ‘Oh, you must use the same cinematographer.’ I was like, ’No, I always work with different people!’

I started to realize that I like working with the language of imagery and I have a sixth sense with that. So, I applied and got into AFI in the cinematography program my first round.

As a cinematographer, going to AFI is like going to the army for two years. It's not glamorous — it's mainly grunt work. You are the backbone of the school. It's super old-school Hollywood. They're very into classic filmmaking and the Hollywood filmmaking process, which was great to learn about coming from the East Coast, not having understood that.

It's incredibly rigorous. Being a cinematographer and a DP at AFI means working seven days a week because you crew on everybody's shows as well. Besides putting up your own stuff, you're bouncing around pulling cable, setting lights, standing in the rain — it's crew work, but you really learn everything from the basics to very involved stuff.

My mentor [Stephen Lighthill] is the chair of cinematography at AFI and has also been the president of the [American Society of Cinematographers]. The ASC is like a mafia, so once you're at AFI and working as a cinematographer, you've sort of jumped into that realm. The ASC has the best cinematographers in the world, and it brings you very close to the Hollywood system, which is now changing a lot. But there's still a lot of respect for it and how the system works.

It made me a much better director to have a real craft incorporating the visual language of film.

What is your perspective on how East Coast and West Coast film schools differ in shooting style, crew culture, and real-world challenges?​

LH: LA is the best of the best, and so you’re going to work with and be trained by the best artists. People go back and forth between the two cities, but they're different. In New York, you're going to get people screaming out of their windows, ‘Stop filming on our street!’ In LA, they're going to just charge you an exorbitant amount for a student shoot.

LA has been working to bring back film because it got too expensive for most people. So, shooting locations are overpriced. Everybody's trying to gouge each other. New York is a little bit less so, but parking your truck, getting your equipment in and out, all of that is very challenging. In LA, there are parking lots and you are expected to be driving to locations.

Based on your experience as the Creative Director of Film and Cinematography at the New York Film Academy, what tips do you have for prospective students to increase their chances of acceptance?​

LH: There are a lot of film programs, and there are wonderful ones out there. You want to find the one that you vibe with or the one that you're impressed with. When you go to NYU or AFI or the equivalent, you’re also paying to be part of that culture, the same way you do when you go to business school. Like, you go to Harvard because you want the Harvard stamp, and that gives you some recognition.

I think to apply to film school, you need an edge. Everybody is doing TikToks and YouTube videos now, and that is great. But that doesn't mean that you deeply understand what filmmaking is or that you grasp the language. I think it's less about what you can make or what you've made. It's more about the why — why this medium?

One of my best friends from AFI, an amazing cinematographer, Anka Malatynska, has a course called the Visual Accelerator Master Class in Filmmaking Language — basically, visual storytelling for directors. So, learning the language of filmmaking before you apply is a great starting point to give you a leg up on the competition.

Is there a single best approach to getting into top-ranked film schools like USC?​

LH: I think integrity, honesty, and having a ‘Why’ will help you make your case.

I always say to filmmakers, ‘If you can literally do anything else — if you love filmmaking, but you could also be a fisherman — be the fisherman. If you can think of something else that you'd like to do, make sure you can do that.’ Because the thing is, you’re not going to go to film school and some magic carpet will be unveiled for you at the end of it. To have the best experience for yourself, try to find out what the culture is, what type of people go there, and what type of work they're doing. If that inspires you, that would be a great place to go.

As someone who’s taught at both USC and UCLA, how would you compare both institutions?​

LH: USC has the most amazing facilities — they have the most professional, high-end stuff. It's very rigorous and very internally competitive, too. I don't even know if there are dorms for UCLA. It just has a different feel, that of a city school versus a more Ivy League-like school.

Do you feel that one or the other would be more ideal for a filmmaker who is more interested in making traditional, three-act, structure-based filmmaking, envisioning themselves making big budget productions, versus a more indie-abstract filmmaker?​

LH: No, you would go to CalArts or somewhere similar to be more of an experimental filmmaker. You're not going to go to USC or UCLA for that — they're both very Hollywood.

What are a few projects early in your career that shaped you as a filmmaker?​

LH: In the beginning, my career shot up very quickly. Along with my first short film going to the Berlin Film Festival, my first commercial was for Revlon. My second commercial was with Halle Berry for Revlon. And once I was out in the world, I learned quickly that filmmaking is a craft and a service that people will pay for and it is not always an art — and that is okay, as long as you keep your creativity going with your own projects — ones that you don’t have to answer to clients on.

You directed “Attention Move: This is America,” blending documentary filmmaking with VR to tell a socially impactful story about a critical moment in Philadelphia's history. Can you share how the film came together and what it means to you?​

LH: It is an under-told African-American history — and a great story. I grew up in Philadelphia. My godmother lived down the block from where the bombing happened. Here is the logline: A VR documentary-based, 15-minute immersive experience that thrusts you into the 1985 bombing of a Black Philadelphia neighborhood on Mother’s Day. Through the eyes of Revolutionaries, Neighbors, and the Police, experience the collision of ideals, fear, and power that shattered a city and reshaped history.

VR is really an empathy machine. You’re not only seeing a two-dimensional version of the story. You're in the movie. And that's what makes it fascinating. I am working with a brilliant creative partner, Edward Button (Dp/Director/Technologist) on the project, who is as emotionally invested in the story as I am and he is not from there. What we find critically important is making stories like these now because, as fast as we make them, governments are trying to eradicate our communal history and convince us that things like this did not happen

How can filmmakers draw from their personal histories and roots to tell compelling stories — even in conceptual or genre-driven work?​

LH: That's a good question. You know, I don't think you can't do that. You think you're seeing “Gladiator,” or watching a superhero movie, and even they have stories personal to the writers and the filmmakers. They might be acted out through these characters in what seems to be a heightened, conceptual way, but some of the best ones can be deeper-reaching and more resonant. Those movies are just stand-ins for their stories and questions about life. I mean, that's why we create virtually anything. We have a question about it, we’re curious about it, and we explore it through a certain medium.

Thank you for reading! The interview continues in Part 2.​

Curious about the next chapter of Hinlein’s creative journey? Become a Supporting Member to continue reading our in-depth conversation with Hinlein. In Part 2, she discusses her film coaching services, helpful tips for rising filmmakers searching for their voice, and the no. 1 skill every filmmaker should learn to succeed in the business.