From the time
Film Connection student
Michael Jessop was in 7th grade, he says he had a serious interest in media in general, and video editing in particular.
“It was my dad who first introduced me to the Sony Vegas editing platform,” he says,
“and I’ve just been addicted to it ever since then.”
After graduating high school in his hometown of Colorado Springs, CO, Michael decided to pursue an associate’s degree at Pike’s Peak Community College, where he studied not just video editing, but other forms of media like audio, film production and photography through the school’s radio and television department. But even with all that exposure to media training, Michael still felt something was lacking.
Ryan Lancaster and Michael Jessop at Castland Productions
he says,
“the problem was that all of the businesses were looking for work experience—I mean, about two to four years of production experience. And you really couldn’t get that through a normal college system like what I went through…So I heard about Film Connection and I decided to go ahead and try it out. And it was a nice, steady flow in terms of the curriculum, and then being able to get right into the workforce. Within a week of contacting Film Connection…I was amazed at how quickly I was able to get into an apprenticeship with a local company.”
The “local company” was
Castland Productions in Colorado Springs, where Michael apprenticed with Film Connection mentor John Lancaster. Because of his previous experience and education, he picked things up fairly quickly, and from the beginning, Michael was open with his mentor about his desire to use his apprenticeship as a gateway to a job.
“It’s been a very good connection,” says Michael.
“I’ve always told him about looking for a job. In terms of the curriculum, he wanted to help speed that process, and when I completed that objective, he was expecting it, but he was also pretty glad that I was able to quickly learn the things that he wanted me to learn.”
As it turns out, not only was Michael able to work himself into a job with Castland, but on his mentor’s advice, he signed on as a subcontractor with the company in order to start his own production company, Multimedia AMDG.
“It’s a subcontract position that he wanted me to go for,” Michael explains,
“because he wanted me to start my own little business, just so I can also promote myself in the process.”
As of now, Michael has his plate full with projects from Castland, essentially working full-time as a subcontractor, not just with video editing, but also putting his other multimedia skills to work.
“It’s 80% video editing and 20% production work or other,” he says,
“like graphic design, web design. They’ve also wanted me, even though I’m the video editor, but in my spare time, when they don’t have clients currently on the list, they assign me to do web design for them for helping build up their websites, or help create more projects to promote Castland Productions.”
Even with the workload, Michael says John continues to mentor and guide him along the way.
“We’ve been jumping back and forth with clients with projects,” says Michael.
“He’s feedbacking on my work I have done so far with clients, and it’s been going very, very well….It’s been quite a blast. It’s been crazy just in terms of the amount of projects since I first started to what I am now. It’s been insane, but it’s been very good work and a very good experience in the process.”
One of the projects he’s working on for Castland is a promising reality video series called
Auto Bowl. “It’s a ‘sport’ competition between shops and mechanics to repair cars in very short period of time,” he explains.
“The cars are either given to families who are in need or those who can’t afford it—single moms, [people with] financial problems, etc. We did a 30 minute promotional video for an event, I was responsible for most/all graphics for that video, and some editing.”
Now in the process of establishing his business as a video and multimedia professional, Michael has some long-term goals for film.
“I definitely would like to create my own feature film one day,” he says.
“I did kind of imagine creating my own films since I’m now done with the video editing, I’ve got graphics, and I’ve worked with special effects. Just the thought of just creating my own feature film is a dream goal.”
In the meantime, Michael still expresses amazement at how far he’s come in such a short time by learning on-the-job.
“It worked out more than I ever imagined,” he says.
“It has been a great blessing for me, because if I had not found out about the Film Connection, I couldn’t imagine what I would be doing right now.”
