In my LBB (Life Before Beaufort), I had always assumed that book people and tech people lived in slightly different worlds. I believed that tech people lived in dark basements, hacking or coding or something. Book people lived in libraries and cafés and generally well lit, respectable places. I considered myself a book person. I study English at college and frequent cafés, so how could I be anything else? Imagine my surprise when, by the second month of my Beaufort internship, I found myself downloading elusive software and furiously typing editing commands. I was producing video tutorials for Beaufort and Midpoint, and I had become a tech person.
Looking back, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I read voraciously as a child, but then again, I also spent three days filming and editing a music video to a Fiona Apple song. It culminated in a frenzied lip-synching scene which involved jumping on my couch. I enjoyed the cutting and pasting in iMovie as much as I did the lip-synching. By the time I was in high school, I was making post-rock music videos to impress my boyfriend (he was in a band).
(Still from Don’t Miss a Day: Music Video for post-rock boyfriend)
When I got to college, I had the equipment and funds of a well-endowed school to further my habit, and I spent a winter making the short film “Purity Ring and the Pretty Gang”. It told the story of a repressed suburban housewife and the crew of delinquents who upend her world; it came out to rave student reviews and only one complaint from a faculty member.
(Promotional Poster for Purity Ring and the Pretty Gang)
My videos had always been a side project, a slightly eccentric way to entertain myself. But after producing over fifteen videos for Midpoint with riveting titles such as “How to Use the Financial Tab”, I’ve found a marketable outlet for my skills. I take pleasure it writing out scripts and manipulating footage. I even told a man on the train the other week that I was interested in “producing freelance video microconent for independent brands”. I have no idea what I meant, but it felt good when I said it.
(My new calling: online video tutorials)
As I fly away from Beaufort and Midpoint, I’m ready to spread my iMovie wings. I can stride confidently into life’s cafés and basements, and embody all the intersections of my interests. I emerge with my love of books intact and my love of tech ignited, and firm in the belief that, as always, I contain multitudes.
-Gillian, Intern and Burgeoning Tech God