PICTURE BUTTE – Joey Reimer is proof positive that sometimes life does imitate art.
The Grade 11 student was a member of Picture Butte High School’s silver-medal winning Video Production team at the recent Skills Canada provincials. Their assignment was to shoot and edit a video over a 12-hour span that would capture how fellow students could benefit from the skills they put to use during the various competitions at provincials.
In Reimer’s case, the experience provided him with a much clearer picture of his future livelihood.
“I know if I do this, it will likely be a good career for me,” he says of video production, adding he likes shooting video, but editing it even more. “If I could be like a jack of all trades, there’s hundreds of jobs I could get into at that point.”
This is the fifth year PBHS has offered its media class and the first time it sent a team to the provincial Skills competition. Principal Mark Lowe, who teaches the program and accompanied the team to Edmonton, says it was “incredible” how the team’s skills progressed from the regional event.
Not only did the team learn the importance of skills like time management, Lowe says they now better understand the reason behind all the rules and tips he provides the students in class. What impressed him most, however, was the students’ willingness to think outside the box and play on their strength – special effects.
“I really admired how they went for the homerun instead of a safe bet. That is how you learn,” says Lowe.
Leading up to the event Reimer and his partner, Ian, analyzed all the winning videos from past provincials. While those entries were good, they noted all were quite similar and none had a lot of “spice to them.”
“We knew we had so many video editing techniques we could put forward and it’s either going to win the judges over 100 per cent, or they are going to absolutely hate it,” says Reimer. “We figured, let’s do it. We’ve got nothing to lose.”
This was the first year the two students worked on a video production together. Reimer believes their particular skill sets mesh and they also seem to share a common vision.
The 16-year-old is chomping at the bit to make a return to the provincial Skills competition next year. Not only did the team benefit from watching some of the techniques used by competitors at the event, Reimer says they now have a better understanding of what the judges are looking for and areas they could improve.