College

So I am in my 3rd year at UGA (The University of Georgia), and classes are starting to get more difficult. I haven't had much time to make any videos for Thompson12. I've done a few videos for other people and one for class. I would like to start a project of my own soon in the short film category. I have a few ideas for a video but haven't nailed anything down yet. Another idea i've had is to make a fake action movie trailer and see how many views it can get. Who knows, if it gets enough views and likes, maybe I could start a kick starter project, raise a little money and make it for real. You never know.

Movies

           So I first became interested in making movies during my junior year in high school. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was taking Latin as my foreign language and we had just been assigned a project. The project was to choose a job from ancient Rome and then create a visual guide depicting or describing your selected job. Now one of my favorite movies as a child was the 1960 movie "Spartacus" starring Kirk Douglas. Spartacus was the gladiator responsible for the slave revolt in ancient Rome so when I was tasked with selecting a job from ancient Rome, I figured I might as well go with the dangerous job of fighting in the arena. In the following days as my fellow classmates discussed their projects, the overwhelming majority appeared to be simply creating posters with a few pictures and facts. Somehow, that just wasn't appealing to me.

For those of you who know me, you may also know that I am a big Star Wars fan. Prior to being assigned the above mentioned project, I had seen many amateur light saber duels posted on YouTube. Some were great, others were... well... they weren't, but it always impressed me that these people were somehow able to choreograph a nifty little fight and edit and splice all the many camera angles together in one video. So naturally I thought "If they can do it, so can I" and thus began my desire to make a short action sequence and post it to YouTube. When they opportunity arose for me to make a visual guide about my job, I immediately pounced on the idea of making a short gladiator fight to the death in the arena. Now making a long story short, I made the film with the help of my parents and siblings. The basic plot is to gladiators fight to the death on a dark night. My mom designed and sewed the tunics my brother and I wore. My dad built our weapons and served as the camera man. My sister, Elizabeth, constructed our armor, David, one of my brothers, was the other gladiator, and I choreographed, directed, edited, and acted in the film. It was by Hollywood standards horrible, and held very little in the area of production values. It was after all my first attempt at making a movie.

When I showed it in class, I was a little nervous but my peers responded well and it was an overall success. After that experience I decided I wanted to make movies. I knew I would go to a university and study how to do it, but I figured it was never too early to begin learning. As a result, I read as much as I could on how they were made. I watched countless tutorials explaining the ins and outs of making it all come together. A lot of it was downright confusing. It took a while but the information began to come together so that it all made sense. Since the gladiator video, my knowledge of making a quality film or video has vastly improved. I have by no means become an expert and there are still thousands of miles to cover yet, but I have through it all learned by doing, and it is with that same mentality that I am approaching my next project. What is my next project? Well, that'll have to wait till another post. If you're interested (which I hope you are if you're reading this) just know that it will be bigger than anything Thompson12Entertainment has done yet.