Today’s youth is becoming increasingly more connected to technology and its application to everyday life. My high school Mentor high had an extensive two year program called Interactive Media that taught how to use technology to create and manipulate video and images. At first the challenge seemed daunting with the large list of mysterious programs like I-movie, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver; all of which we were to learn and become proficient in using if we desired to pass the class. My experience with computers and digital media was novice to say the least but my teacher Mr. Lynch was calm intelligent and good teacher.
Photoshop, the first program I ever learned to use, was for the most part easy to pick up. After learning how to properly save, crop and paste images my world opened up to a million possibilities of creation and expression. For example, say I wondered what it would look like if I were juggling babies? No, that wouldn’t be enough, what would it look like if I was juggling babies and chainsaws simultaneously? A quick snap of the digital camera of me standing in front of a blue screen, cut out the blue, paste me on a background, add babies and chainsaws and Chainsawbabiejuggle was born. Not only did learning how to use Photoshop give me a million more ways to make my friends laugh, but it also opened me up to new business, and advertising opportunities. The winter before high school ended I used my newfound skills to create flyers and interesting cards for my snow blowing business, which was really just me and a snow blower.
After learning the basics of Photoshop we moved onto video editing with programs like I movie and Final Cut Pro. One of the class’s first assignments was to create a music video to any song we chose. I chose a song me and a friend had wrote and recorded outside of class. It was really fun to think up a concept shoot and edit a video to original music having every part of the production being something you made. For the most part I movie is pretty simplistic which makes it easy to use but also means it does have its limitations. For more professional high end video editing Final Cut Pro is essential, but is not as easy to use and requires much more research and preparation to be utilized properly. To be honest I never did really get the hang of using FCP and relied heavily on I Movie to create the videos I made.
All in all being able to use technology to edit and manipulate video, images, and ideas is becoming an increasingly important part of the American workplace, and culture. People to people media outlets such as YouTube have created a way for people to display and share their ideas like they never have been able before. Being proficient in technology and its application to everyday life and human expression is becoming a larger and larger part of what it means to live in a modern society. I feel lucky to have been in the right position to learn to proficiently edit and create media through programs like Interactive media and would highly suggest taking classes to anyone interested in the subject.
