MFA film student, teacher, and aspiring children's book author
<p>BigKat "BK" Manning grew up in Green Bay Wisconsin, and began dabbling in filmmaking in high school. As a 10th grader and with a VHS camcorder checked out from the school's library, BK and a buddy made a silly video (all in German) about searching for a lost cat. That experienced was positive enough for BK to pick up and leave Green Bay after high school and move to Los Angeles to formally study film at Columbia College - Hollywood. The cost of film was prohibitive, and at that time digital filmmaking technology was not at the level it is now, yet many more short films were created with the equipment made available. After graduating with a Bachelor's Degree, BK took a detour to San Diego to pursue a Master's Degree in Communication at San Diego State University, and got into teaching. Noticing that digital technologies had advanced and eliminated the previous restrictive cost of filmmaking, BK enrolled in an MFA program at National University, the culminating thesis film for which is "Leopard Spots."</p>