Cordell “Coco” Evan Shepard Jr. is a 19-year-old, Afro-Latino media studies major, born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. He graduated from Pathways Academy of Technology and Design in 2023 and is currently working towards his undergraduate degree at Central Connecticut State University. Cordell dreams of producing several feature length films as well as his own TV series in the future. As of now, Cordell works on several personal projects in his own time but has worked with The Hartford Film Company as a cinematographer and is currently working with CCSU’s Media Center as a camera operator.

Cordell’s high school years were spent learning several technology-based skills. From coding languages like Java and C++ to video and photo manipulation techniques he would go on to use later in his career. Cordell cites his time in his Photography and Production classes as fundamental steppingstones for his future, even though he didn’t realize it at the time. In his time with the CCSU Media Center, Cordell found himself truly falling in love with camerawork. Being able to capture a time and moment in space gave Cordell a profound feeling of purpose he hadn’t felt in his entire life up to that point. Not only did it give him this great feeling of purpose, but it also gave him the experience he needed to be accepted into The Hartford Film company.

Broadcast sparked the fire in Cordell’s heart but when he was with The Hartford Film Company, he furthered his love for film. In his time with them, Cordell learned about script coverage, color grading, audio, lighting, and had his first true experience making a video to be shown to others. Cordell and two of his peers were tasked with creating a promotional video for an Art Studio that shared the same building as The Hartford Film Company.

While not completely glamorous or high profile, Cordell still found the experience to be extremely fulfilling. Conducting interviews with the artists and facilitators, recording B-roll of the studio, and getting up close with the people who made the space their home, made Cordell absolutely fall in love with the process of making media all over again. Then, getting to see that hard work be put on a big screen for multiple people to watch was an experience like nothing else Cordell had ever felt or seen before.