Alixandria
Stafford: Editing Life for a Future
By
Patrick McDougall
Rummaging around
the house, Alixandria was in dire need to find anything she could use to create
a masterpiece. Scouring the computer for old photos and videos of family events
and listening to music that would fit her design. This was not an easy project
and would take time and dedication. As
she gathered the necessary material, she began to enter the data into her
computer. Each picture and video had a
special place in her heart and only the right manipulation and editing would be
sufficient in her masterpiece.
Struggling to stay awake, Alix worked through the night. She awoke early the next morning to start the
process of providing her masterpiece to her mother with her Mother’s Day
gift. Arriving to her mother’s bedside
with breakfast in hand as well as her laptop, she had nothing but a grin on her
face. Together they sat and watched the
video that Alixandria had created, sharing laughter and moments of silence
while a playlist of her mother’s favorite music resonated in the background.
The music perfectly reflected in the theme of the video and the collaboration
of family videos, vacations, and memories were synced harmoniously. The smile on her mother’s face was everything
that Alixandria had desired and will be kept in her thoughts forever. “Finished products make little projects worth
all the hard work involved.”
Alixandria
Stafford, an 18-year-old college student, attending Johnson County Community
College, is passionate about her community and has been applying herself and
talents towards her dream of becoming a Hollywood icon in video production and
editing. It all began when she clicked
on a tab on her computer in Middle School for an editing program. Before she knew it, she was creating
miniature/short movies that included everything in her daily life. “Sometimes I just like to make videos of what’s
going on around me,” she said. Everything
had a place and a purpose and needed to be juxtaposed perfectly to gain its
maximum effectiveness. Her knowledge of film editing had begun to reach a
tipping point and she set out to find out more.
With the help of
her Aunt, Alixandria set out on her journey to learn more about her
passions. Together they walked through
the process of selecting a school and found that Johnson County Community
College offered a program to fit her needs. They worked diligently to find a
class selection that would work around her schedule as a barista. With dreams
of making her mother, father and grandmother proud, Alixandria enrolled in the
program and started her education. She
found a multitude of classwork that would open her mind to ideas that she had
not thought of before. Classes such as Intro to film and learning the basics of
film, while elementary, provided a base of background information to go
from. Every day she finds new ways to
enter music, sound effects, and mixing videos that would depict the emotions
required from her audiences. “When it
comes to making movies, there are a million of things behind the scenes that no
one knows about,” she explained. Camera angles and shoot to edit became common
phrases and lessons that she lived by.
While early in her
career, she plans on developing experience through the media outlets offered through
JCCC student program such as the JCCC student news and radio stations. “The road will be filled with a ton of small
editing jobs in order to get where I want to be,” she proclaimed as she spoke
of the efforts needed to gain experience, “but it’s these little jobs that
build the tools necessary to succeed.” Film editing has always been a part of
the movie business. It is considered an
art form to take scrambled scenes, pictures, and music and combine them into a
well transitioned and coherent finished product. While seen as a huge contributing factor to
the success of a movie, rarely are the efforts mentioned past the ending
credits.
Finishing a
project is an enormously daunting task but personally rewarding at the same
time. Most of film editing involves long
periods of sitting in a production room, however, more so now than ever before
the film editors must work hand in hand with all member of the production cast
to find the perfect vision for the movie and director. Lighting, angles,
costume design, and set design all play significant factors in the editing
department. The skills of editing are
ever changing and involve both the use of technology and human resources. To be
a success in the field you must dedicate your life and time to getting the
experience necessary to compete for a top job.
The road ahead of
Alixandria will not be an easy one and will be filled with obstructions and
training to arrive at her ultimate destination: horror films. “Even though I’m scared of spiders and the
dark, I find horror movies extremely intriguing.” she proclaimed. “Film editing
can bring a character to life and I find comedy to be one of the best
characteristics in a villain’s repertoire, and that’s one of the things I want
to bring to the industry.”
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