Matt Ellis: Staying Hopeful in a Hopeless Situation

Matt Ellis, a fifth-year senior studying multimedia communication with a concentration in film studies at Olivet Nazarene University, participated in Best Semester’s Los Angeles Film Studies Center (LAFSC) program only for COVID-19 pandemic to cut his capstone experience short.

After dedicating years to academic work and overhearing all the fun stories from upperclassman, Ellis’s turn for his Best Semester finally came.

Along with five other ONU student, Ellis packed his bags and eagerly went to L.A. Before long, the semester to was cut short due to the coronavirus.

“It’s like when you do a TV show for a studio. You can get halfway through the season of filming and then the studio comes in and says we’re cutting the program. No if’s and’s or but’s— It’s over,” Ellis said about the best semester program ending. “You could wallow in self-pity and be completely depressed over it, or you can rise above it.”

Ellis first heard about the coronavirus in the beginning of January from John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight show. He said he thought, “Okay. This is a thing that’s happening. I better keep my eye on it.”

As of April 21, 2020, the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that there are over 740,000 cases of the coronavirus.

But for Ellis, the threat of the coronavirus became real when he arrived in L.A. During the first week of his internship, he was told to work from home.

“My boss comes from China. She has employees that travel from China to the states all the time. Someone had just returned from a trip and they didn’t want to risk giving me the coronavirus,” Ellis said.

Ellis said this was at the beginning of it all for the U.S.—back when people were still joking about the coronavirus.

“I tried to stay positive. I noticed the surviving rate was greatly higher than the death toll. I wasn’t too worried about it, but it was a growing concern for some people,” Ellis said.

Ellis paused, a serious look on his face.

“It wasn’t until March 10. That’s when we knew stuff hit the fan.”

MATT ELLIS

The program did not intend to end the semester early but informed the students that the situation was being monitored. Then 24 hours later, the students received an email for a mandatory meeting that afternoon. Ellis says his text group chat exploded once they received that email.

“Everyone was saying it’s over. There were cries and wails and complete upset,” Ellis said. He tried to maintain a positive outlook. “Maybe we’re just quarantined in our apartments.”

Then the students arrived in the class for the mandatory meeting and it was announced that all study abroad programs hosted by Best Semester were over as of that moment. Every student would be sent home.

“This whole situation – forcing me to leave because of the quarantine, COVID-19 shutting down the country—it sucks. But I’m choosing as best I can to view it in a positive light. I’m sad, but I’m not distraught,” Ellis said.

The students had a month and a half left of program when the pandemic cut their semester short. That last weekend was the beginning of final production for their Hollywood production workshop class where they were creating a ten-minute pilot episode. Ellis’ team completed the majority of the filming that weekend and were able to finish producing the episode with the footage they already collected.

“It was really heartbreaking. We were in the middle of filming,” remarked Patricia Valencia, another student participating in the LAFSC program.

“I already have a credit to my name [because of that pilot]. I was less affected by the closure than others. Some were devastated. There were some who were crying their eyes out. I could understand it because some people really banked on this program for the rest of their life. They planned on this being the springboard for everything else,” Ellis said.

Check out how other students participating in this program are coping with COVID-19 by clicking here.

To see Matt Ellis’ work while he was in L.A. click here.