The Student Journalism Site of Millard South High School

We Are Millard South

The Student Journalism Site of Millard South High School

We Are Millard South

The Student Journalism Site of Millard South High School

We Are Millard South

Teen shoots for a future in film

by Isabel Robb – Editor in Chief

Lights, camera, action!

Career academies are a great way to test out what you may be interested in pursuing a career in before you get to college. These academies are offered to juniors and seniors in Millard, and the classes can be at high schools here in Millard or at other institutions in the area.

Senior Lily Butler is enrolled in the film academy offered through Metropolitan Community College and has been since classes began at Metro on Sept. 3. She takes college classes, though they are mostly filled with other academy students.

“This class in the fall quarter is called Moving Image Lab, and it’s camera basics and stuff,” said Butler. “All our grades are projects. Some of them are in class, and it’s just, like, a skill: audio recording and microphone stuff. And then we go practice a dialogue scene, and then we go back and edit it in class.”

Butler was recently assigned a project exploring continuity, and she created a storyline in which a thief, played by senior Christina Cardoza, stole sweatshirts from the Patriot Post and was pursued by senior Abbey Dyer.

“The continuity one took me like two hours to edit and two and a half hours to shoot. And it only ended up being a minute and a half,” said Butler.

Videos for Butler’s class are edited on an Adobe program that can be installed on Millard South student laptops.

“The editing program, Premiere Pro, is what they edited Deadpool on, which is kind of dope,” said Butler. “The way my teacher Bob explained it was like you use Microsoft Word to edit whatever you write, so Premiere Pro is like the Microsoft Word of videos. It makes it less overwhelming to edit on it.”

The computer software isn’t the only equipment Butler uses that has actually been used to make movies and tv shows.

“We did microphones and stuff and he pulled out the big boom pole and the little ones that you see like Jimmy Kimmel clip to his tie,” said Butler. “The video cameras we use are Panasonic, big expensive video cameras. I mean they’re not huge but they’re a good size. We use tripods.”

Being in the film academy solidified that filmmaking is what Butler wants to do as a job later on.

“I loved movies before, but now it’s like, so many people make them,” said Butler. “And honestly, right now I don’t care what aspect of filmmaking I would want to be a part of. If I’m just a grip on set, if I’m just doing lighting, like I don’t care. It’s still cool.”

Butler is making plans for when she graduates in May knowing what she wants to study in college.

“UNL’s program is called Emerging Media Arts but I would do an emphasis in cinematography,” said Butler. “And I have to apply and get into that still, but if that doesn’t work out I’ll probably just stick to Bob’s classes at Metro and get my degree there.”

Butler is glad that the film academy gave her the chance to try out what she planned on majoring in before beginning college.

“Seniors need to try things before they decide to pay all the money for college to go do it,” said Butler. “Cause like that’s what I was planning on doing anyway, is going to UNL and this program. But what if I ended up not liking it and I just spent $20,000 to go to UNL but I don’t like it? But I do like it and I feel confident that that’s what I want to do now.”

You can view two of Butler’s projects.  Volleyball senior night and a story line assignment

Donate to We Are Millard South
$115
$400
Contributed
Our Goal

Like what you see here? Your donation will support the student journalists of Millard South High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase cover most of our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to We Are Millard South
$115
$400
Contributed
Our Goal

Activate Search
Teen shoots for a future in film