Recapturing the magic of that first camera

Remember your first camera and the sense of magic you got capturing the world on film? James Tralie, an eighth grader from Sandy Run Middle School, lets us relive that moment in his short film  “Seeing Through a New Lens.”  The story depicts a boy and the imaginative potential unleashed by his first Flip camera. Tralie placed first in his age group at the 2011 Youth Media Awards.  NewsWorks.org spoke with him about his win.

Q: What did it feel like to win? A: It was amazing. I was trying to fathom the whole situation as I walked up on stage to get my trophy. It was just amazing having this opportunity to explain my movie to the audience and getting positive feedback on it.Q: What inspired you to make this video?A: Well, I started making movies when I was in fourth grade, just simple movies with my friends. And, it kind of evolved when I entered middle school and my old middle school teacher … made me think deeper about my films and got me into effects and working with different deeper meanings. One day I was just sitting around and I saw my first video camera and a picked that up and … relived all the memories. Q: What are some other video projects you’ve put together? A: This past spring I created one for a computer competition. It was one I made about resisting peer pressure in school and how you can avoid it. That was created with some of my friends and it ended up making it all the way to the states competition for Pennsylvania. We didn’t win but it was quite an experience making it that far. Q: Do you prefer to work alone or do you prefer to collaborate with friends?A: Well, a lot of times, I like to collaborate with my friends because all our ideas come together into these films and really make spectacular projects. But, if I work alone … I can turn out these spectacular movies if I kind of just experiment and work off the feelings I have inside myself. Q: Where do you hope this talent of yours will take you? Do you hope to someday make a career out of video production or do you do this more as a hobby?A: Yeah, definitely when I originally started, I thought of it as a hobby, but now it’s evolved into this thing I might want to take into a career in the future. Q: What do you think is the hardest thing to do when putting together a project like this? What’s the hardest thing you usually run into?A: The hardest thing I usually run into is probably putting the sound effects together and having it all work together into the movie. Just basically starting sometimes too can be a little difficult as well, but once I get started it’s pretty easy from there. Q: What part do you enjoy most?A: I really enjoy just the pleasure that my friends and family get when they’re watching my movies. And, It’s really exciting to see that in everyone’s eyes.