A love for Musical.ly that turned into a passion for videography. This is the shortened version of senior Frankie Sutton’s evolution of video making. What started off as a summer activity now has become a huge part of Frankie’s life. 

“I would say that making videos is one of my biggest hobbies that people don’t really know about,” Frankie said. “I started my freshman year with just a little camera that I would carry around everywhere. My first video was a summer montage video. I filmed my whole summer and then put it together in a montage form with music behind it. I did it again last year for spring break, and then, I realized I really loved it. So, I got a nice camera and started filming sports and making edits. I just kind of fell in love with it, and now, I want to go to college to minor in that.”

This hobby has taken her on a long journey, and now, she is moving forward with it into her next chapter. A huge part of her next chapter is the fact that she is attending Michigan State University.

Frankie’s love for anything video related started with watching YouTube, Musical.ly, and even vlogs. Frankie enjoyed watching videos on Musical.ly and seeing bits and pieces of vloggers’ lifestyles. 

“I thought it was really cool that people were vlogging their summers, and that’s how I wanted to remember my memories,” Frankie said. “I just picked up a camera and started filming me and my friends. I would film everything when no one was looking, and then, I put the video together and showed it to them.”

Frankie had a given talent and eagerness to hold all of her memories and she found an amazing way to do that. This passion, luckily, came very naturally to her.

Not only do you need a good eye for this, but you need to have some pretty good equipment. Frankie started out simple, but over time, her equipment evolved alongside her filming skills. 

“My dad bought me a Canon G7 X,” Frankie said. “It’s your basic vlog camera. It wasn’t great for filming, and it wasn’t the best quality, but it was really easy to travel with because it was so small. Now, I have a Sony A6400, which is a legit video camera.”

These cameras hold some major memories for Frankie and keep a plethora of footage for her to create videos. The first step in Frankie’s videos is filming, the second is editing, the third is music, and then it’s ready to post.

That may sound pretty simple, but there is more to it than just a few steps, especially when creating different types of videos. Frankie makes montages and sports edits, which both take different editing skills. For example, she filmed a spring break video that took a total of 5 to 6 hours to create. First, she has to film for a week making sure she had more than enough footage to use. Then she has to upload everything on her computer which takes 20 minutes. She has to then go through every single video she captured and make sure they are good enough to use. That is just half of this long process. 

“I have to pick music, which takes the longest, honestly,” Frankie said. “It’s so hard to find something that doesn’t sound stupid and has a good beat to it. Putting the videos in order together is hard, but when you go through them right after your film, you kind of have an idea of which ones would work. To fully edit a video, it probably takes me two to three hours, maybe four. Then, you have to add transitions and effects. So that takes like another hour or two. I would say it takes a good five or six hours to really finish a video.”

Out of the sports edits and montage-style videos, Frankie said she prefers to make montage-style videos. She expressed there are positives of both, such as capturing fun memories in the summer and getting to be upfront for sports events.  

Frankie said she especially likes to film her springs and summers. One of her favorite videos was filmed during a memorable spring break of hers. 

“I filmed a spring break video when I went on a cruise,” Frankie said. “It was my three friends and me, and we just ran everywhere. I got a bunch of good film for the first time, and I feel like that’s the video that really sparked that I for sure loved it.” 

This love for video-making has grown into something she wants to pursue. Since she is going to Michigan State next year, she has no plans of stopping her videography career.

Alongside that, she has other passions she wants to explore further.

“I want to use filming as a side hustle because I want to go into sports medicine or physical therapy,” Frankie said. “In my off time, I want to make some extra cash by creating wedding videos. I have connections with athletes at Michigan State [University] so that will be a good opportunity for me to keep pursuing the sports side of it as well. Overall, I think it will be a side hustle for fun.” 

Frankie sees no signs of ending this awesome path she is on. She can’t wait to see what the future holds regarding videography.

She has made many memories with filming and has captured some unforgettable moments. She still looks back at her videos reminiscing amazing times in her life like hanging out with friends in the summer. 

“I am a girl that will hold on to any object for as long as I can because it holds a memory for me,” Frankie said. “I absolutely love the memory aspect of filming and creating videos.”

She enjoys filming her special memories. She also loves being able to help capture others’ memories and put a smile on their faces. 

Overall, Frankie is a super-talented videographer and truly loves doing what she does. 

“[Videography] gives me an opportunity to show my creativity, which is a different side of me,” Frankie said. “It keeps me going because of the feedback that people give me. I obviously get some negative comments, but it always pushes me to improve on the next one. What also keeps me going is being told that people love seeing my videos and it helps them save a great memory.”