May's Featured Alumnus: Chadwick Trentham '08

Written by Regina Ender

The driving motivation for Chadwick Trentham’s work is that everyone, everywhere, has a meaningful story to tell. As an independent director and filmmaker, Trentham uses his adventurous spirit to travel to new places and engage with new people. His creativity is driven by his desire to be an empathetic listener and communicator, seeking to better understand those around him by lending an ear to their stories and helping to tell them.

Among the various nonprofits and brands he’s collaborated with, Trentham has made videos for APU, Comcast, Nike, the Oakland Athletics, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Snapchat, and Ticketmaster. Trentham has found his niche in telling authentic stories and he prefers giving ordinary people a platform to share their voice rather than using actors. His film style is exemplified in a feature video he created for The Giving Keys whose motto is “A pay it forward company.” The company supports job creation for people transitioning out of homelessness and instill hope in people who wear the keys. In the video, Trentham highlights different people’s stories, from the young executives who started the company to the formerly homeless individuals who were given a new start, shedding light on the wide array of people whose lives the company touches. He uses a similar approach in his music video for Ticketmaster: a raw, acoustic performance of the song “Rely” by the band Flor. In all his works, Trentham gets to the heart of each person’s passion for their job, whether it be a brand or a band.

It was not until Trentham got to APU that he really found his love of filmmaking. He always had a love of music and creating movies, but he didn’t know what shape his career would take until he got to college. As an undergraduate, Trentham’s creativity flourished, and he thrived in his cinema and broadcast arts major. The program provided a lot of space to work independently without a professor’s direct instruction, which he said truly jump-started his career by encouraging him to be a self-starter. It wasn’t until his final Premiere Night that he realized just how much fun he was having, and he looks back fondly at this time as the beginning of the rest of his career, just enjoying creating with friends. Even now as a professional, he still sometimes works for free to continue to learn and network with other creators.

To view his work, visit chadwicktrentham.com.

Words of Wisdom: “Work for free your entire college career and make and send out a pitch deck once a week. You’ll learn more about crafting and selling your ideas through that process than you ever will in the classroom.”

Chadwick, middle, working on a film with colleagues.
Chadwick, middle, working on a film with colleagues.