Killing two birds with one essay.

Not very likely I know. I imagine bird feathers protect them from papercuts fairly well.

As you may know, I am in the process of applying to college. Next weekend I am going up to NESCom to tour the school, be interviewed, and pass in my application. The application asks for the following in place of a college essay.

"On a separate sheet, please describe your interests and goals, beginning with relevant background info."

A rather broad statement if you ask me but I shall do my best! So, in the interest of sleeping tonight I will be using my essay as both my ticket to college and my excuse for a post tonight! Here it is!

If it’s visual, I’m into it. Directing and editing videos, drawing logos and yearbook covers, photographing from unique perspectives, and designing posters and banners, I have tried and enjoy working with a wide variety of visual arts. I have been in the Winthrop High School video production program since sophomore year. Since then I have been learning how to plan, produce, and edit commercials, shorts, music videos, documentaries and more. I have basic to average experience with Final Cut Studio and am just learning Adobe AfterEffects but I want to expand my knowledge.

I produced a music video last year to the song “The Perfect Crime #2” by The Decemberists. It was one of my most involved individual projects and has been the springboard for some of my other projects. I sent the video to the manager of The Decemberists and (PENDING EMAIL VERIFICATION this will be filled with “who watched it and sent [review] back”)

From working on my video projects I learned that sometimes I have to be able to pull in other visual arts in order to create a finished product. I design front and back jewel case covers for all the DVD’s I make. I design full-size movie posters to promote my videos. I design logos and banners for my school’s productions and my own. I design to fully reach the potential of each and every project.

This past summer my video production class was asked to film the behind the scenes documentary for The Putt Putt Syndrome, an independent Hollywood movie that was filmed in my hometown of Winthrop. It was an amazing experience and I learned a lot about the process and the problems of moviemaking. For two weeks I glued my eyes to the viewfinder of one of my school's trusty Canon GL2 cameras and captured the pranks pulled by the make-up artist and the crazy antics of the lead actors over the course of the twelve-hour days. When I finished my time on set I looked back and saw that while in some ways it was one of the hardest and most tiring experiences of my life, I had a lot of fun and learned much. I realized that to do work with video as a career would be my dream job. Which is where NESCom comes in. In all my college searching, NESCom stands alone as the most ideal venue for me to continue on my path to a visual career. So here I am, and here I go.

I don't particularly like the ending, but I never do. Any comments/suggestions are appreciated!