I think it is always fun to hear how people got into the biz, so that's the question I would like to ask. How did you get where you are today?

Stephen: You forgot to answer your own question!

I don't know if I'd call myself "in the biz", but I got into video editing in high school with G3s and early FCP, I think it was version 3. I don't remember for sure, I just remember hours of rendering.
I directed the broadcast for the high school a couple years, then wound up an apprentice for Spy Hop Productions, where we had real budgets (!) and the occasional contract work. The last 6 years I've just been at the U, and haven't really had the time to do much but study and make class-related films. I graduate very soon. My gift to myself will probably be a brand new system.

I started as a janitor and worked my way up. I was lucky to have many mentors willing to give on the job training. To me that's the cool thing about this business, most people are willing to share their knowledge and help each other along. 2009 will start my 30th year in the business.

I started making films with my buddies when I was in my teens. You know, the lightsaber fights, the disappearing tricks with the camera, all that great stuff that everyone does.

But I thought I wanted to get into computers so I was studying computer science and actually got a degree in it. I worked as a database technician for about a year and it was the worst experience ever. After some life evaluation, I decided to give film a shot since I remember how much I loved it. And it's a blast!

I got my hands dirty by working on every student film that I could get my hands on and started making silly videos again. This industry brings together my love for technology with the creative fun and so yeah...That's how I got started. I'm still early in my career but I've worked on some feature films and several other projects already. It's good stuff!

I made movies in the backyard growing up and loved it. I started cutting the news (deck to deck) at KUTV and decided that the news was not for me. I got a bachelors degree at Utah Valley State Collage in Multi-media communications technology and enjoyed every minute of it, well…I guess I should say I enjoyed every minute of the Mult-media classes. From there I became a Multi-media Producer at the LDS church and had the opportunity to work on the Legacy DVD. Around the same time I free lanced at Lone Peak Productions and decided that working two jobs is very wearing. So I became a full time Producer/Editor at Lone Peak Productions and I’m still here loving every minute of it. In addition to my work at Lone Peak I write articles for Videomaker magazine and CreativeCOW. I love what I do for a living and I’m grateful I’m so lucky to be in the “Biz”.

I used to skateboard a ton when I was younger and we'd always sneak someone's mom's video camera out to record our latest tricks. After a few months of that we decided we wanted to edit together a video. Lots of trial and error. None of us knew what we were doing, but I loved trying to figure it out.

After several years of classes and books, I started a wedding video business when I was 22. It lasted about 6 months. I wanted to kill myself. I started doing corporate video after that and have been here ever since.

That is by far the most ringing endorsement for corporate video I've ever heard: "Wanted to kill myself doing weddings."
Haha!