Devin Bone is a freshman at Michigan State University.  He is currently is an International Relations major.  He is 18 years old and lives in Rochester Hills Michigan

Black Turtle Media: What kind of a background do you have in video production?

Devin: I have taken classes in high school:  video production and advanced media production.  I haven’t taken anything in college yet.  I’m pretty much completely self-taught.  Other than those classes I’ve just been learning by playing with the camera and editing software. Me and my friends get together and do this for fun.  Now that I’m in college I’ll like to pursue it a little more during my free time and get better.

Black Turtle Media: What kind of equipment do you use?

Devin: For this project I was using a little Panasonic personal camcorder that maybe costs $300.  It’s a couple years old.  I edited with Final Cut Pro HD, which is a really great editing system, I love it. 

Black Turtle Media: How did you get the idea for your video?

Devin: My friends and I were sitting around figuring out what we were going to do.  We also try to make something funny.  At the time Mitt Romney’s religion was kind of in question, so we decided to go with that and we kind of just ran with it.  It was on the fly and was very much improvised.

Black Turtle Media: Is Barack Obama really your favorite candidate or was that just a product of the video

Devin: We kind of just made the video.  At this point I’m kind of in support of him but it’s all up in the air still.

Black Turtle Media: What was the production process like?

Devin: Me and two other friends were the ones who started it. His name is Rich Evans.  He and I wrote it and another friend helped out. It was real quick too;  it only took about an hour to shoot and about a half hour to edit.  I kind of like it when it goes that fast, you know.   It’s a good process.

Black Turtle Media: How did you feel when you found out that you won?

Devin: I was really excited. I was just blown away.  I was shocked.  My friend that starred in the video Rich actually called me.  I didn’t know, I was in class all day and he asked if I heard the news.  I was like no way.  We won.  I jumped online and sure enough, there we were. 

Black Turtle Media: How did you find out about Black Turtle Media and the contests?

Devin: My friend actually won the Halo contest and told me about it.  His made a video for it and won the popular choice too and so he told me because, I’m always looking for stuff to enter.  I jumped on and am definitely going to use Black Turtle in the future.  I see you guys have a lot of cool contests there on the compete page.    There’s a lot of good information. 

Black Turtle Media: What was the biggest thing you learned from this particular video production?

Devin: I think this was the first time I used my friend’s Panasonic camera since I usually use a Sony Handycam.  So, now I know how to use Panasonic as well as Sony. 

Black Turtle Media: Do you plan on producing future videos?

Devin: This summer, me and my group of friends that shot this video are going to take the prize and invest in a really nice camera.  Hopefully we’ll make some more money by winning other contests.  We’re going to take the money and shoot an independent film.  We’ll be sending the film to some film festivals if it’s long enough.  Maybe Sundance, Ohio International Film Festival, and Ann Arbor International Film Festival.  We’re gonna give a crack at that. 

Black Turtle Media: Do you have a script written yet or are you still planning everything out?

Devin: We have about 70 pages of script written so far.  I actually just finished adding about ten more pages in-between my classes.  It’s a work in progress. 

Black Turtle Media: What advice would you give to other people looking to create winning videos?

Devin: Just be yourself in the video.   I mean, if you have a big group of friends, then you’re set.  Just make sure you’re making yourself happy and awards will eventually come to you.   And you’ll always learn new things.