Recent Digital Cinematography grad Van Eisenhour created a mini-documentary in class that earned a spot at a film festival.
When Van Eisenhour was assigned to create a mini-documentary for one of his Digital Cinematography bachelor’s courses, he knew exactly who his subject was going to be: Dillon Strouse, a local entrepreneur who has cerebral palsy and runs a party rental and DJ company. Thanks to the skills Van learned in his classes and encouragement from his instructors, Van’s finished project, Strouse Entertainment: Starting a Business from a Wheelchair, was a success. The film was shown at the 2026 Wellsboro Film Festival in Van’s home state of Pennsylvania, and Van’s looking forward to exploring more documentary filmmaking in the future.
Van kicked off his project by coming up with questions to ask Dillon during the talking head interview in the documentary. Then Van started filming the interview and getting footage of Dillon in action by setting up one of the bounce houses that Strouse Entertainment rents out and gathering B-roll of Dillon working with his employees. But the filming process wasn’t all smooth sailing – Van had to quickly adjust when the weather turned.
“For the interview section of the doc, Dillon has another property and we had planned to film it out in his pavilion. But it was raining and rain was coming in through there, so we actually filmed that in my basement last minute,” says Van. “It was like, ‘Well, we have to get this done. We have a deadline. What can we do?’”
I think the course directors really helped us home in on what a festival is looking for and how to tell the story and how to handle the [documentary subject] and get them to talk about different things and be able to create a story from that.”
During the editing process, Van put all of his footage together and polished it. After seeing the final result, his Full Sail instructors encouraged him to get the mini-doc out into the world.
“When we shared our project with the class, [Course Director] Angelo Perrino said ‘You really should enter this into a festival; I really think you could get into some’… [The Wellsboro Film Festival] was the first and only one I applied to and I got into it. So that was kind of awesome,” Van shares.
“Van showed up every week with a new or updated cut of his film, took all the feedback, and worked really hard all month long to make the strongest documentary possible,” says Angelo. “He took it very seriously and it shows in his talent and his drive, and the end product is such a strong and clear story that is highly polished.”
Creating a clear story that would speak to audiences was one of the big takeaways that Van got from his classes.
“The main thing I learned that helped me was how to not go too in-depth [with a story] and lose the viewer when they’re watching it,” he says. “I think the course directors really helped us home in on what a festival is looking for and how to tell the story and how to handle the [documentary subject] and get them to talk about different things and be able to create a story from that.”
As he graduates, Van wants to try and grow in the documentary space and see where his creativity takes him in other genres.
“Just seeing how much of an impact this mini-doc had really makes me want to explore that avenue. And I can go out and do it without a huge crew, because I am in a more rural area and I don’t have a huge budget. To be able to make something that means something and it doesn’t necessarily have to have a huge star or something like that [is important to me]. I think documentaries and stuff are where I’m headed, but I would like to write some horror and comedy and see how that goes,” he says.
Van also has words of wisdom for up-and-coming filmmakers at Full Sail.
“I’d just like people to know to apply for festivals. Full Sail does give us excellent tools. I talked to people at the [Wellsboro Film Festival], and they have worked with other graduates and they have said that they’ve all been awesome and they really enjoyed their time with them. So take advantage of Full Sail and network, too.”
Check out Van’s hard work and watch Strouse Entertainment: Starting a Business from a Wheelchair below.
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