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Last Updated: May 6, 2007
Comments/Questions: Janie Boschma

Filming a dream

John Nicksic By Janie Boschma

Most people would not expect film directors to also have sports at the top of their list of hobbies.

Senior John Nicksic maybe one of the next famous Hollywood names to do just that.

Although Nicksic – a Camp Douglas, Wis., native – has had a lifelong passion for movies and film, it was not always his career goal.

He originally attended UW-Stevens Point for athletic training, but after frustration in his courses and overall dissatisfaction with the school, Nicksic said he decided to transfer to UW-Eau Claire.

“I love Eau Claire,” he said. “The campus is gorgeous. I look out my window and I love seeing the river … the hippies on Lower Campus. I love that. I’m never bored in this city. It has been a good fit for me.”

Nicksic is now one of the directors for the Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival and is also one of the coordinators for the TILT Student Filmmaking Society.

“When I got (to Eau Claire), for some reason I really got into theater,” Nicksic said. “I love acting. I really developed a love for film.”

To be practical, he said he decided to pursue a major in public relations with a topical film studies minor, since theater involves tremendous communication. He said a communication degree would offer more career options in case theater would not pan out as a profession.

Nicksic said growing up with four brothers and a sports-loving father made sports a natural hobby for him. Much of his childhood was spent playing basketball, baseball and football and his dad always brought baseball cards home for him after work.

Nicksic describes himself as a very “fit and nutritional” person, and uses his campus job at the Crest Wellness Center to keep in touch with his love of sports.

Although sports are a hobby, he said filmmaking is what truly interests him.

“One of the reasons I like film is I can’t see myself working in an office eight hours a day,” Nicksic said. “It’s too much mediocrity. I’d like to be rich, but that’s really not the goal.

“I’m just prepared for the worst, because the competition is terrible. (Film) is a hard industry; everybody wants to be famous. That’s not what it’s like for me.”

However, his younger brother, Timmy Nicksic, 11, said he does not doubt John Nicksic’s future in film.

In ten years’ time, Timmy Nicksic said he sees his oldest brother “making movies and living somewhere far away.”

He has also seen some of John Nicksic’s homemade films and thought they were “pretty good,” Timmy Nicksic said shyly.

John Nicksic directed a 17-minute film, “Queering the Family,” in the 2006 Student Independent Film Festival about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender families.

“It was a good experience,” he said. “I had fun doing it. I think, at times, you can show people more visually (than with words).

“The resources (here) are limited, but I do what I can.”

The first step after graduating from UW-Eau Claire next year is to study film more in depth at graduate school, Nicksic said.

He said he has been researching schools across the nation, including University of California-Los Angeles, University of Texas-Austin, Florida State University and University of Southern California – “the best film school in the United States.”

He plans to begin sending applications in the fall.

Nicksic, the oldest of six children, said he really loves his family.

“We’re a very competitive family. We’re a bunch of hotheads,” he said with a laugh. “It’s definitely dysfunctional, but in a good way.”

Timmy Nicksic recently visited in Eau Claire for an evening and the two brothers had plans to see Spiderman 3 at the theater. Timmy Nicksic said the following day his brother would take him to Green Bay to watch Timmy play in a hockey tournament.

“He’s nice. He takes me a lot of places,” he said.

Timmy Nicksic said the two of them spend a lot of time together playing baseball, watching hockey and going to the movies.

“We go see movies and just hang out. He’s cool and funny. We have the same interests.”

John Nicksic’s favorite movies are “Life as a House,” “The Majestic” and “Field of Dreams.”

Timmy Nicksic said “Field of Dreams” is easily the family favorite.

“Everybody’s seen it at least five times in our family,” he said.

John Nicksic said his father would call for them every time the film was playing on television.

“I would run up the stairs like it was Christmas Day,” John Nicksic said, smiling.

In the future, Nicksic said he would like to be either a director or screenwriter, or “anywhere where there’s a creative process in the film industry.”

He said he is looking forward to a film career that will allow him to think creatively.

“I love telling stories and being original – telling stories that haven’t been heard before.”