Redwood TV is currently captivating an ever-growing audience coming up on nearly 10,000 views on its YouTube page.
“We’ve been getting more hits, more views, and more subscribers,” said Jack Bushell, producer.
The young filmmaker took on the job of Redwood TV at the beginning of the school year, replacing the previous producers that graduated. Bushell said he talked to Dave Plescia, Leadership adviser, and asked to make the videos although he is not officially a Leadership student.
“When I look into doing Redwood TV, I think, ‘What’s going on this week? What can I use for an intro?’ because I’m not just going to go just right into clips. I want people to get interested,” Bushell said.
According to Bushell, he films about three to four hours and spends about two to three hours in post production. Bushell films with his own cameras and edits his videos with Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects. He uses music from a website called SoundCloud for the introduction and background music.
In the past Redwood TV has not aired because of inappropriate content. Bushell has taken a new approach.
“I think one of the reasons why it was censored last year is because they wanted to find something that would interest Redwood students so they decided to do funny things that happened to be censored,” Bushell said, “but this year I’ve taken a different approach on it so I’ve added time lapses of the bridge and those really are interesting to kids. It interests kids in a more positive way.”
Bushell films things like timelapses of the bridge, crowds at game night, and rallies to integrate in with the necessary announcements and hold his audience’s attention.
Bushell also does film work alongside Redwood TV and has created a business from it called Bushell Film.
“I’ve done videos for real estate agents, I do recruiting videos for people, and promotional videos to get athletes sponsored,” Bushell said.
He plans to keep growing his new business and has created a website.
“I don’t think people realize how much time it takes, but it’s rewarding,” Bushell said.
Bushell wants to continue his film career and hopes to major or minor in film in college.
“At first I wasn’t really concerned about perfecting the videos, but now it’s gotten to the point where everything has to be perfect and I’ve gotten really into it,” Bushell said. “I’m making a little business for myself.”