Sartell eighth-grader excels in videography

by Dennis Dalman

news@thenewsleaders.com

At the young age of 13, Warner Lolmasteymaugh of Sartell is not only an accomplished videographer and video editor – he is also a budding movie director.

The Sartell Middle School eighth-grader just wrapped up a production titled “Locked in the Dark,” which is a short spooky movie he scripted in time for Halloween. The black-and-white silent film stars friend Ethan Bird as the protagonist who tries to escape the clutches of a sinister bogeyman while locked in a house.

In writing and filming the movie, Lolmasteymaugh was inspired by classic horror movies of the old days – silent black-and-white movies like “Nosferatu” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

Lolmasteymaugh is a virtual compendium of movies and movie-making. He doesn’t just watch movies; he studies them; he takes notes about their styles of photography, editing, dialogue, plot developments and sound effects.

He has a big book shelf plum-stuffed with DVDs of movies and video games that he seeks out at area stores and libraries.

The young videographer is the son of Ken and Rachel Lolmasteymaugh. He has two younger siblings – sisters Evie and Anna. Anna is already showing a keen interest in video basics, he said, and Evie’s special passion is food and cooking.

Lolmasteymaugh took to video the way a duck takes to water. Three years ago, when he was just 10, he began to explore and play around with video techniques via his computer. On his adventure of discovery, he created YouTube videos and blogs and began to fiddle around with various software and video applications. He was soon hooked, and his hobby became, as he calls it, his passion.

One day, his mother, Rachel, asked him if he could put together some videos for the company she works for, Facetime Business Resources. He obliged, and his success with those tasks launched him into more videos commissioned by people, businesses and organizations. He now calls his videography business Blacksmith Studios.

He has created videos involving The Waters Church, Sta-Fit, House of Pizza, Blue Line Bar & Grill, Sartell Pediatrics, Granite City 5k Run, St. Patrick’s Day Parade in St. Cloud, the Fifth Avenue Live event in St. Cloud and a training session of the Sartell firefighters – to name just some of his works.

Last summer, he created a video to honor the start of a new school year in Sartell. The film was a “thank you” and “welcome back” tribute to teachers, administrators, staff, food-service employees, bus drivers and others involved in the school district. With his trusty videocam, Lolmasteymaugh set out for Sartell businesses and other places to ask questions of people, including a couple students, who shared their thoughts and feelings about school personnel. Then he edited his footage, added a piano score and presented the video production at a banquet of school people who warmly applauded the movie and the appreciative comments from the people in it. One was an interview with Sartell Mayor Ryan Fitzthum in front of City Hall.

“We’re excited for the school year to kick off,” Fitzthum said. “And Go Sabres!”

Lolmasteymaugh uses a Canon Vixia R-600 and a Mercury-brand tripod when filming.

“The Canon Vixia is very sturdy and gets the job done,” he said.

To learn his craft and in a constant effort to fine-tune his skills, he took some online videography courses to explore the highly technical subject. Last summer, he interned at BadCat Digital Marketing in St. Cloud. Lolmasteymaugh said his favorite school subject is language arts.

“Video is a very big passion of mine,” he said. “I hope to do it as a career. Maybe videos of sports games and doing some of my own personal movies. Some of my videos have been advertisements, ways to promote things or to shed light on certain topics.”

Despite all the studies and works to learn his craft, Lolmasteymaugh said he learned at least as much by just having fun with his camera, winging it, learning from mistakes, filming his friends in the backyard. For a school art project, he shot a little movie based on Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” starring friend Zach Moore as Tom.

Lolmasteymaugh is hoping his love of videography will secure him a solid future career, one that is challenging and fun at the same time. His unswerving dedication and his sharp-eyed focus to the craft will almost certainly guarantee him a string of future achievements.