Locally-grown film student KJ Knies questions the definition of “home” in his new project titled “When the World Ended”.
In it, a teenage boy and girl must stick together to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where two sets of people exist: those who have conformed to the new way of life and those clinging to the past.
Faced with the same task of defining home in his personal life, Knies takes this struggle to the silver screen.
“I grew up (in Covington) my whole life,” Knies said. “You get a sense of security when you’re growing up with the same people, but then when you leave them, you don’t realize that you kind of need to start from square one.”
Graduating from Kentwood High School in 2012 and attending UCLA last fall, Knies knew that to follow his dreams, he had to branch out.
“I’m trying to work my way into the film infrastructure,” Knies said. “It’s a very hard industry to break into.”
But after acting in another director’s film that focused on the world ending, Knies felt he could portray the apocalyptic experience in a better way. And like the characters in his film, Knies realized that he must focus on the future and not the past in order to live out his dreams of being a director and filmmaker.
“As soon as I let go, that’s when I started to dive into my friendships (at UCLA),” Knies said. “I think the biggest thing for me (was letting) go of my old home and connecting (in Los Angeles) more.”
But Knies certainly hasn’t forgotten about home.
This summer he plans to film the scenes of “When the World Ended” in Kent and around the greater Seattle area. Also, Knies and a few of his business partners founded TheFilmStudio, a Kent-based company that gives students experience working with filmmakers, something Knies believes to be “a new chapter of filmmaking in Kent.”
“There wasn’t a great hands-on experience for these kids, (and) most of my learning happened sitting behind a camera,” Knies said.
Knies hopes to finish filming his 15-minute movie by the end of the summer and define for his audience what he believes home to be.
“It’s a very abstract concept, but your home…it’s the people you’re around. That’s what it comes down to,” Knies said.
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