Oklahoma City Community College’s Digital Cinema Production program draws in aspiring filmmakers from all over the state as well as the country, but it isn’t every day that someone moves all the way from Europe to enroll in the program.

Niccolo “Niko” Casparis is a twenty-five-year-old from Locarno, Switzerland. He moved to Oklahoma in 2019 from his home country to enroll in the DCP program. Niko spent several years of his early life in London, England and moved back to Locarno for several years before returning to Lancashire, where he spent his high school years.

Niko has a great passion for writing. His interest in DCP actually began with books.

“Before movies for me it was literature” Niko said.

Some of his favorite stories include the works of authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and J.R.R. Tolkien. Some of Niko’s favorite movies include The Shining by Stanley Kubrick, Alien by Ridley Scott, as well as the works of Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and Akira Kurosawa.

Speaking about writing, he said, “It fulfills me. It makes me feel good about myself and I can make other people feel good with stories as well.”

Niko’s other great love in life is travelling. From his late high school years to the present, Niko has travelled all over the world from Brazil, to Spain, and even to Japan. Travelling, seeing new places, and meeting new people showed Niko that everybody has a story and that he wanted to be the one to tell them.

“I have my traveling journal.  Every individual that I meet that has left a significant impact on me. I give them one page to write whatever they want. In it, I have over a dozen and a half languages. I have a couple-hundred people who have wrote in it already. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.” Niko says.

Niko was recommended to go to OCCC by a colleague of his father, Robert Hefner.

“Program-wise, I think it’s amazing,” Niko said. “It gave me the tools to understand and work out where I want to be.”

Some of Niko’s favorite courses in the DCP program are Production Design, Screenwriting, and Business Production.

After finishing the DCP program at the end of this semester, Niko hopes to pursue a career in professional screenwriting. He tied it back to not only to his love for writing, but his love of people.

He says, “I love the idea, the feeling of being able to be kind of a vessel for the stories of the people I’ve met.”

He also plans to continue travelling.

“No matter where I go, I feel at home.”

Niko made it clear that a person’s path in life is almost never straightforward, but that isn’t a bad thing. Niko is excited to see what the future holds for him.

“No matter what happens, you cannot plan everything. But be guaranteed that no matter happens, there is a huge chance that it will be better than what you planned,” he says