WEB BLURB: You may know of W3 Productions, but who’s the mastermind behind it all? Get to know sophomore Ethan Burch, director of W3 Productions.
I reported this story with an Edirol broadcast recorder and produced the finalized version through Audacity.
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[INTRODUCTION] KYLEE RENFREW: Ask anyone at Huntington University about W3 Productions, and they’ll probably tell you about some of their favorite videos such as “Call Me Maybe” and “One Thing.” But who is the man behind W3 Productions? [Call Me Maybe Fade In] Christian Herrera sat down with director Ethan Burch, a sophomore at Huntington University, to find out.
CHRISTIAN HERRERA: You might know that as Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe,” but to the Huntington University community, that is easily recognized as one of the many W3 Productions. DMA Film Production major Ethan Burch, perhaps one of the more underrated names on campus, has been filming these parodies to popular mainstream music for the past 2 years. [Call Me Maybe Fade Out] Burch enjoys playing video games, hanging with friends, and even the occasional golf, but what influenced him to pursue a passion for film production?
ETHAN BURCH: I’ve always loved watching movies and looking more into them than the average viewer would. I’m not very good at memorizing things, but when it came to movies, for some reason, I did. And I just remembered the little details about them. And I always loved watching the behind-the-scene videos for all these other movies that I used to watch.
HERRERA: Three influential directors inspired him to follow in their footsteps.
BURCH: [Lightsaber Sound Effects] There’s probably three main ones. I love Star Wars, so George Lucas. He created one of the best stories ever told. Star Wars was my first love of movies. [Lord of the Rings Soundtrack Fade In] Watching the Lord of the Rings movies by Peter Jackson. [Lord of the Rings Soundtrack Fade Out] The behind-the-scenes videos were super interesting because it was such an ambitious and large film to make that seeing all the little details of that behind the scenes was really cool.
HERRERA: His favorite director, however, is Danny Boyle, director of movies like Slumdog Millionaire and 28 Days Later.
BURCH: He is just a great director, very artistic, and always has a good message in his movies. And he has a lot of movies that expand across different genres like horror, drama, and science fiction.
HERRERA: Burch translated his love for film and inspirational directors into a hobby, and quite a popular one at that. Second semester of the 2011-2012 school year, Ethan Burch was crowned [Trumpet Sound Clip] new head director of W3 Productions, a tradition that began a few years ago on Wright third of Huntington University.
BURCH: Last year, senior “Sunshine” Daniel Evans left, and I decided to kinda take over because he was the main film production guy, and he helped with a lot of the videos. And, also, Ben Daron helped and Ben Daron kinda encouraged me to film it. I did my first one at the end of last year. It was actually my first video I’ve ever filmed. And I’ve been doing them ever since.
HERRERA: Burch currently has over half a year of W3 Productions experience under his belt. However, the transition into the directing throne wasn’t that easy.
BURCH: There’s a lot of funny videos. Concerning that I’ve never done a funny video before, Call Me Maybe, the first one, was pretty stressful because I wanted it to be on the same quality as the other ones.
HERRERA: “Stressful,” but successful. To the point where Carly Rae Jepsen watched Burch’s very first W3 Production. Burch’s hard work paid off one summer after entering a contest sponsored by the 2012 Teen Choice Awards.
BURCH: It was over the summer, and one of the guys on the floor emailed me a link to a contest where it said, “Do a lip sync of the ‘Call Me Maybe’ video and you’ll have a chance to have it entered at the Teen Choice Awards.” So we entered it and we watched it whenever it came on and, sure enough, in the background during Carly Rae Jepsen’s performance there, they showed a couple clips of it, and it was just really cool to see that. It was a really cool feeling and I knew that film production was something that I can pursue as a life goal job that I can do and enjoy for the rest of my life.
HERRERA: Of course, the road to earning a degree in film production isn’t always easy. Recently, there was speculation on campus that “Broken Hearted Medley,” a film by Burch, and “The Real Deal – The Truth Between L2 and W3,” a separate film by director Kevin Turner of Livingston second, were produced using the exact same songs as means of rivalry against each other. Some were offended, but Burch was quick to clear the air and reflect on what could have been potential regrets.
BURCH: With the whole Wright 3rd – Livingston 2nd thing, it made it look bad that we used their songs. It was just to poke fun at each other. It wasn’t meant to be harmful or immature or anything. Some people, I think, got mad at us for that, but it wasn’t meant to be like that. Other than that, yeah, really no regrets.
HERRERA: Burch loves every moment of being director for W3 Productions, crafting a fun environment with his “brothers” on Wright third, and spending quality time with his friends. In the end, it’s all meant in the spirit of fun.
BURCH: It’s kinda fun to just have the freedom of literally filming whatever we want. Music videos are something really fun to do because you get to mix visual images with upbeat music and just matching those and putting those together, its’ just really fun. I just love bonding with my [Wright third] brothers and having a good time and giving people a really fun video to watch.
HERRERA: Teasing W3 Production audiences, a post was made on their Facebook page on January 21st saying, and I quote, [One Thing Fade In] “Do you remember all of those ‘classic’ boy bands through the years? So do we… ;)” When asked to comment on any details behind the post, he said, “There’s definitely a video behind that. Other than that I really can’t say.” However, he did say to be on the lookout for another W3 Production very soon.
This is Christian Herrera, reporting for The Huntingtonian.
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Christian Herrera 