Bryce and Tomás: Why do we make videos?

March 2, 2017 by Tomás Carradero

Hello fellow readers,

In this article, Bryce and I just wanted to show you what it means to us to be making videos at the beacons and how we associate it with art. This past February we tried to produce a few articles that explain what art means to everyone. For example, Gabby Herron shared an article last week on what it means to her to be able to play the guitar, sing, and create other art on the side. Since February is a short month, we are a little late. You can blame Pope Gregory XIII, who created the calendar who know today.

Any-who, this is me, Tomás, speaking now 🙂

I’ll start off with how I started making videos 5 years. I first started with an iPad and would make silly videos about family gatherings like birthdays and other occasions. Those videos were pretty poor technically, but they have a sentimental value to us when we look back on them. From there I got invited to a GoPro tour in San Mateo CA on bring your parent to work day. One of my friends brought me as his “Kid” for the day. I was “Tomas Denny” for that day. During the tour we were given the latest model of the GoPro and I was under the idea that we would be giving them back at the end of the day. Little did I know that we would get to keep them and I would be addicted to using my GoPro for the next 2 years. I got to use the GoPro at many vacations and I started to spit out videos on youtube like crazy. Using the GoPro introduced me to using a canon DSLR and I began to explore the possibilities with that camera. From there I would start to make family videos and at one point I shared one of them with NCU at the Mr. Beacon event. The sports information director, Nick Askew, saw my video and I guess saw some potential in me to help him. So he and Sarah Freeman hired me as a student assistant with the athletic department. I started making highlight videos for them and became their assistant photographer. Although I started to get paid by them, I still enjoyed my work. It became a part of who I am and I was ok with that. A part of me was left with every one of the videos I’ve made and that is what make its art to me. My journey didn’t stop there as it was brought to my attention that there was an opening at the Beacon Bolt as the media and video producer. I landed the job and shared it with Bryce Hagan. Since then we have learned from each other and experienced our very own styles of doing what we love.

To me, creating videos is more than a job, it is a way for me to express myself through cinematography and music. Finding the perfect song to a video is one of the best feelings because it puts together your visual senses along with some inspiring audio in a way that creates emotions.

Hi! Bryce Hagan here with a bit of information on how I’ve come to be a content creator and media editor here! Honestly, it’s not just about making videos for me. I would say that my passion is just as equally about writing as it is video creation. I’ve been writing almost my entire life, so naturally I’ve grown a desire to bring my words to life. In doing so, my hope was that I could reach more people with them! Video making first entered my life during the third grade, when I made the non-award winning film, History. This movie featured an original script whose plot followed a young man (played by the chubby childhood me) who discovered a time traveling history textbook! In exploring the uses of this discovery, he accidentally alters history, but not for the better. Feeling guilty, the boy chooses to take it upon himself to return to the past and fix his wrongdoings. This film was easily the most original plot anyone had seen at the time, believe me.

Since my third grade glory days, I’ve spent most of my time honing my skills as a video editor and with my job here at the Beacon Bolt, I’ve sought improve my skills as a writer as well. To me, video editing and creating is the most exciting and the most fun way in which I can express myself. I am able to show how seriously I care about certain topics by committing myself to in-depth research, I can show pieces of my own personality through the way that I write my scripts, and I can even show my sense of humor both in my writing, as well as in the way that I edit, whether with comedic timing or comedic imagery and visuals.

I get profound satisfaction out of the videos I create, and I genuinely pour myself into them. Hopefully viewers can see that, to some degree, and can get something out of them because, I’m not just making them for myself. Just as much as I try to express myself in these videos, I also make them in order to communicate with an audience, whoever they may be.

Until next time!

Tomás and Bryce, out