An engaged energy pulsed through the crowd at The Courtyard ATX on Thursday night as four student artists riffed on guitars, bashed out drum beats and sang indie rock. Organized by an up-and-coming club, Longhorn Artists Connect, the artist showcase marked one of its efforts to foster collaboration among student creatives.
Radio-television-film sophomores Aiden Weinstein, Elliott Saiontz and Quinn Graves first conceptualized the club as a way to bridge the gap between theatre majors and film students. Weinstein said he found it demotivating to make movies without access to talented student actors.
“You can write the greatest script ever, but if you have a bad actor, it’s going to be a bad movie,” Weinstein said. “The point is to, instead of everyone trying to play every role on set or on stage … (let) everyone build off of each other’s strengths.”
Saiontz said the group is undergoing UT’s process for creating official student organizations, and that a divide exists on campus between the film and theatre programs.
“It’s all one industry when we get to the real world, or two very, very connected industries,” Saiontz said. “There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be that way here. Even though all these schools feel so far apart and disconnected, we wanted to make that change, and we (wanted) to make that change for everyone we possibly could.”
As part of the group’s approach to promoting collaboration, they formed a talent agency matching actors to films and other projects. Graves said sifting through endless casting calls for a golden acting opportunity poses a challenge for students.
“It gets lost in the noise a lot of the time,” Graves said. “The service that we’re really providing is being able to find them those quality opportunities to really let their art shine.”
Weinstein said Longhorn Artists Connect is beta-testing a networking app for students to post their movies and music and submit to casting calls and auditions. Additionally, they plan to host more events like Thursday’s concert to help musicians form valuable connections.
“That’s where you really build true fan bases and true communities, through in-person experiences,” Weinstein said.
Featuring Isabel Block, Sriyam and indie rock bands The Ramparts and Study Break as the headliner, the concert felt electric. Malachy Breen, an economics freshman and the singer and guitarist for The Ramparts, said the new club helps like-minded musicians find each other.
“When trying to get (The Ramparts) together at the start of this year, I was posting all over the freshmen UT 2029 story,” Breen said. “It’s tough to find people. I got lucky, but this definitely will help with that.”
Saiontz said the concert being entirely student-run was what made it special.
“Everyone was in this one large crowd at the front and dancing and singing along, waving hands,” Saiontz said. “It really felt like an amazing concert experience. But more amazing than that, it was put together by a bunch of students.”
