NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) - It seems that more and more young people are finding their niche in video production, if YouTube views and channels are any indicator.
North Platte High School is acknowledging that with a new video production class taught by Philep Willey, an information technology and English teacher.
After teaching digital media classes, Willey explored expanding into a video production class, which came to fruition in the 2019-20 school year.
The class, Willey said, fits into the NPHS Career Readiness Initiative because it allows students to complete a career pathway in video.
Willey didn’t quite realize just how big video production was until a parent-teacher conference in 2018.
“One of the parents of a digital media student told me how much her son enjoyed video,” Willey told The North Platte Telegraph.
Willey had no idea at the time what freshman Mac O’Brien had accomplished.
“On his own YouTube channel, at that time, he had a little over 1 million views,” Willey said. “He’s so successful and never talked about it, but his mom wanted him to have opportunities.”
O’Brien’s mother, Melanie, who is a grant writer, helped secure two grants from the John Russell Applegate Fund, administered by the Mid-Nebraska Community Foundation, to get the fledgling program off the ground. Willey also secured a third grant of $5,200, awarded to the program by the North Platte Public Schools Foundation this fall.
“The first person who gave me the idea to apply for a grant was Adam Reed, NPHS career coach,” Willey said. “There is a big demand for creators of video and this year we will have around 200 students take digital media, which has a large unit of video editing.”
NPHS senior Carsten Brady had enjoyed making his own films before taking the class.
“I started just getting together with friends, writing scripts and making short films,” Brady said. “I’m interested more in kind of a feature film, a drama or something, a more realistic feature film.”
Although he has an interest in filmmaking, he has other plans after graduation.
“I’ve been pretty interested in movies and art making, video production and filmmaking,” Brady said. “I’m interested in doing that, but I’m going into the Army first.”
Another senior, Payton Yearling, isn’t necessarily interested in video production as a career path.
“I thought about a path in video production and it is something I like doing, but I don’t actually think I’m going to pursue a career in it,” Yearling said. “I guess it’s technically just to have fun. I just like the atmosphere of the classroom and being able to plan out my ideas and make cool funny videos and have a laugh with the class.”
Willey said another benefit of the class is that it adds value to the high school, the district and the community.
“We get a lot of requests to do different projects for various groups,” Willey said. “This class should allow us to take some of those requests and produce a decent video for them.”
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