Student Experience
Alumnus and Pixar editor Kevin Nolting empowers next-gen filmmakers at UCSC
Kevin Nolting (Porter ’79, aesthetic studies) founded Slug 48 within UC Santa Cruz’s Arts Division in 2024. The 48-hour filmmaking event empowers UC Santa Cruz students to push past creative boundaries.
Kevin Nolting (Porter ’79, aesthetic studies) has spent the majority of his career shaping some of the most beloved animated films ever made.
UC Santa Cruz alumnus Kevin Nolting (Porter ’79, aesthetic studies) has spent the majority of his career shaping some of the most beloved animated films ever made. As an editor for Pixar Animation Studio for 22 years, he worked on Academy Award winning titles including Up!, Inside Out, and Soul and contributed to many others including Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Now retired, he is turning his attention back to the next generation of filmmakers, including those at his alma mater.
In 2024, Nolting founded Slug 48 at UC Santa Cruz in collaboration with the Arts Division. The 48-hour filmmaking event has students creating a 48-hour film—one that is written, shot, and edited within that time frame. The event gives students the opportunity to engage in hands-on filmmaking experience with parameters laid out by a panel of judges, including a specific line and a prop that need to be used in the film. The event encourages students to push past creative boundaries, empowering them to deliver a product within tight constraints.
“I did a number of 48-hour films while I worked at Pixar. Compared to the four to five years it takes to make an animated film, this idea of making something spontaneously, not getting hung up on perfection, was exciting and inspirational,” Nolting said. “It was like a marathon runner going out and doing a sprint, you get to exercise your creative muscles in a different way.’
This year’s event featured a discussion between Nolting and fellow Pixar editor Axel Geddes who most recently worked on films Hoppers, Toy Story 4, and Finding Dory. Student groups had the chance to win awards with cash prizes including the Ron Yerxa Award for Best Film, a Kevin Nolting Award for Best Editing, a Best Use of Dialogue award, and an audience award.
“I hope this experience gives students the ability to not be paralyzed by the process of making a film,” Nolting said. “Once you realize you can write and shoot and edit a coherent film in 48 hours, it frees you up to go try it again and again. Plus, it’s a lot of fun.”
Nolting’s motivation to support UC Santa Cruz stems from his desire to amplify the arts and humanities, and pass down knowledge to up-and-coming filmmakers. In addition to lending his time and expertise through Slug 48, Nolting also supports UC Santa Cruz philanthropically, giving to various areas like the Arts Dean’s Fund, the Visiting Artists and Experts Fund, and more. Nolting sees a need at UC Santa Cruz, and knows his gifts will have a direct impact on students.
Students Ruby Smylie (Porter ’27, film and digital media), Alex Dominguez (Porter ’27, film and digital media), and Austin Micka (Porter ’26, film and digital media) teamed up to participate in Slug 48 this year, ultimately winning the Ron Yerxa’s award for Best Film. This is the second year Smylie and Dominguez won the award, claiming the prize in 2025 as well.
“Winning Best Film two years in a row has given me a confidence in my work that no other award so far has even come close to,” Dominguez said. “It’s such a tough challenge and even completing it is so rewarding.”
The trio wrote the script together and then split responsibilities in order to pull together their film within the 48-hour time constraint. Dominguez served as the team’s director and acted alongside a hometown friend. Smylie and Micka lead the cinematography and lighting of the film, ensuring crisp shots throughout. After 12 hours of filming, Smylie and Micka edited the film while Dominguez actively composed the score as each scene was completed.
“It was intensely collaborative, something I believe comes inherently because of the 48-hour time limit,” Smylie said. “Once the 48 hours starts, it’s pure adrenaline!”
Micka emphasized that the event pushed them in ways that may not have been possible in a typical classroom setting. He says that it forced them to be extremely collaborative, take on multiple roles at once, and the time constraint “inspired an entirely new level of creativity.”
“The biggest thing I take away from this 48 hour challenge is really just how much fun we all had,” Micka said. “I feel a bond with this group that is a really rare connection and am just happy we had this opportunity apart from the traditional classwork that we typically do.”
Nolting hosting and judging the event was the cherry on top for the trio.
“Having the chance to have someone with the experience of Kevin Nolting, a person who edited some of my favorite childhood movies, watch something I created was unbelievably exciting,” Dominguez said. “I couldn’t be more grateful for such a respected, talented filmmaker and alum to host such a special challenge at UCSC. It has been the most rewarding opportunity to not only participate in such a difficult challenge, but to speak with and share my talent with Kevin Nolting.”
Kevin Nolting: From UC Santa Cruz to Pixar Animation Studios
Nolting transferred to UC Santa Cruz in 1976, a time when the university was known for its narrative evaluation system in lieu of a traditional grading system, small class sizes, personal relationships with faculty, and a campus unlike any other.
Nolting didn’t see himself as a strong student in a traditional academic setting, feeling as though he had fallen through the cracks of a system that equated honors classes with intelligence. He emphasized that UC Santa Cruz gave him a different kind of environment, one where students who may have appeared to be “slackers” were given the room and support to find their way.
He started exploring different majors before landing in aesthetic studies, and without grades to chase, he says he was forced to compete with himself, constantly measuring his work against his own standards rather than an external rubric. Nolting credits this nontraditional education system with instilling a mindset that he carried with him throughout the rest of his career.
After graduating in 1979, Nolting spent five years in Japan working as a translator, part of that time for a film translation company, serving as an on-call English expert and translating films from Japanese to English. This was his first introduction into working in film before returning to LA in 1985 and accidentally falling into film editing. Starting as an apprentice editor, he slowly worked his way up through the world of live-action film, learning the craft through years of hands-on experience rather than any formal training.
For a long time, animation was not on his radar. That changed when a friend called out of the blue, not to recruit Nolting, but just to ask if he knew anyone who might be interested in a position at Pixar. Nolting surprised him by saying he wanted the job, knowing almost nothing about animation editing and having only seen Toy Story as any real point of reference. The decision defined the rest of Nolting’s career.
“It was in the Bay Area, and Pixar seemed like a great place to work, but I knew nothing about animation editing,” Nolting said. “That decision changed my whole life.”
For Nolting, working on Up! and Inside Out were experiences that stuck with him. He recalled the collaborative nature of the two projects, working to anchor the two original concepts.
“It took a couple years of wandering in the woods of ‘what is this thing really about?’ Fortunately Pixar built creative exploration into the schedules then, so we were free to go off on tangents and chase down wildly different stories,” Nolting said. “And the fun of working with a director like Pete Docter was that at times, it didn’t feel like we were working on a movie at all, we were just exploring interesting ideas.”
In retirement, Nolting continues to consult for Pixar, but his focus remains on passing down his knowledge. For current UC Santa Cruz students hoping to build a career in filmmaking, his advice is simple: stay open minded, recognize that the path may not be straightforward, and be willing to observe and learn along the way.
“If you’re going to be a filmmaker, just do it, find a way to do it, and at first you may not be doing exactly what you want to be doing… be open to the idea that the path may not be direct but will eventually get you there,” Nolting said. “You have no idea where something might lead. Be open-minded.”