After arriving at the McAfee Center for a “Radium Girls” dress rehearsal, senior Katie Berger opened the camera app on her phone and started vlogging her last high school fall play. She turned the camera to her friends, sharing how the cast was preparing for their upcoming performances.
Berger started making videos at a young age, through middle school news broadcasts and films for the high school Media Arts Program (MAP).
“I’ve kind of always made little videos of myself since I was little, and I like watching vlogs on YouTube,” Berger said. “I was in GNN (Griffin News Network) in middle school, and I’m in MAP now so I’ve learned a lot more about video editing.”
Berger enjoys vlogging personal events such as drama productions, field trips and, more recently, her senior year events. She typically vlogs with her phone and occasionally with her Canon Powershot Elph 360 HS camera. After editing the footage on apps such as iMovie, Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro, she posts the videos on her YouTube channel (@katieberger4639). While she used to post them in a private playlist, her hopes to study film in college and share her videos with friends led her to make them public, so colleges can look her up online and friends can easily watch them.
Berger originally gained interest in being in front of the camera, because she grew up performing through theater and dance. After watching the PBS Kids TV show “Odd Squad,” she researched how to act in a TV show. From there, she studied film in school and realized that she was just as interested in working behind the scenes.
“Through MAP I’ve learned a lot about how film can tell stories and spread messages about important things and I find that really interesting,” she said.
Berger plans on continuing her passion for film in college, albeit not just to produce content. She is primarily interested in Film and Media Studies, focused on analyzing films and understanding their meaning, as well as how they affect the world and people.
While Berger is experienced with videography, her main reason for vlogging is to have mementos to look back on.
“I like to vlog to capture my memories,” Berger said. “I think senior year has a lot of big and fun events. I’m trying to do it more with my dance competitions and stuff, just trying to capture these final moments [of high school].”
