Alumni Profile: Aurora Warfield, B.A. Journalism and Public Communications '05

"Don't sell yourself short. If you want something, go get it," is the motto UAA alumna Aurora Warfield lives by.

"My mom branded that into me," she says.

Good thing for her, it stuck. Today, 28 year-old Aurora is living in New York and doing what she has always dreamed of-directing. But it was only five years ago she was a student at UAA fighting the everyday struggle of giving it her best in school, and working on big-time movie sets was just a distant dream.

Born and raised in Anchorage, Aurora chose to go to UAA because of the UA scholars program. "I graduated in the top 10 percent of my high school class, so I was a UA scholar. It's an awesome program and the only real reason I stayed in Alaska for college," she says.

She was in theatre for eight years, which originally led Aurora to thinking she wanted to act. "I eventually realized I wanted to tell the whole story instead of just part of it. I wanted to direct, and the journalism department was the closest I could get to studying film."

Driven and determined, and one to always look toward the future, Aurora applied and got a two-year internship with the Directors Guild of America in New York. Thinking she was going to graduate in spring 2004 she applied to graduate, but was informed that she was eight credits away from graduation. Then, her mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer making Aurora postpone her decision to go to New York and follow her dream. Aurora spoke with the Directors Guild, which was gracious enough to defer her enrollment a year, allowing her to finish school and spend time with her mom. "It was important to my mom that I get my degree. Of course it was to me too, but she really pushed me to finish college," Aurora said.

It was a hard year for Aurora, but she says it was help from people like professor Red Bradley that kept her focused. "He helped me explore and expound the skill-set needed when handling cameras and film." Aurora says some of the best advice from Red was 'Aurora, you're the director. Go, direct.' Because that advice translated to all aspects of her life, "I know that in the job I do now, people depend on me to make decisions. I have to make decisions, and be confident in myself to do my job. I have to 'go direct.'"

Aurora graduated from UAA in the spring of 2005 and packed everything she could into two bags and moved to New York. Her mother passed away that fall while she was working on Law & Order Criminal Intent. "It was a hard year, but a good year too. Of all of the new worst days you acquire, you have to remember you are going to acquire new best days, too."

Aurora now has credits to her name such as Sex and the City, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and the television show Ugly Betty. In 2006, Aurora and two other students won a student Emmy for "We are Anchorage," a video about diversity in Anchorage.

She's currently an assistant director, which she describes as "the right hand of the director." She logistically maps out the shooting day-from when to pick up actors, to how many production's assistants it will take to protect seven blocks of Manhattan from the general public while shooting a car-racing stunt. "While shooting Sex and the City there were so many fans and paparazzi standing around watching; the fire marshal showed up and told us we had created a fire code hazard on one of the streets of Manhattan. It was a crazy day."

Aurora says, "People always think they know what it's like working in the 'business' but you really don't know until you step through that door yourself. We work 14- to 22- hour days and it's always crazy busy, and people can get hurt."

Aurora really knows how serious the 'business' is; she recently got injured after wrapping a day of shooting The Sorcerer's Apprentice. "We're all about being safe on set and taking precautions, and we just wrapped after shooting a stunt car chase. Then out of nowhere, it happened." When they reopened the road to the public, a woman lost control of her car and hit two parked cars that landed on Aurora and some other production assistants who were standing nearby. "I'm still in physical therapy."

However, because of that recent accident, Aurora had time to visit Alaska in September and was a guest speaker at one of Red Bradley's classes. "It was fun coming back to UAA. I could tell most of the students were impressed with what I'd accomplished, but I kept telling them 'If I can do it, then so can you."

Aurora is passionate about taking action and moving forward. Her never-standing-still attitude is inspiring. She says she hears a lot of people talk about what they want to do, but she says, "Don't talk about it! Do it!" She encourages people to take the initial steps to work toward their goals in life.

"Channel passion into action, and it will lead you to where you want to go."

Aurora's ultimate goal in life is to eventually write, produce and direct movies. "Maybe not all three on the same job; at least, not right now."