One of the most uniquely talented people at Old Rochester Regional is definitely junior Kyle Costa. An amateur filmmaker, Costa has been making videos with his friends for over four years now, beginning with YouTube videos while he was in the sixth grade.
“I made a really stupid video on my bus, about a bus talk show, and people seemed to like it, so I just went with it,” said Costa.
Along the way, Costa has adapted to a handful of different technologies that he uses for his videos.
“I began using just a camera and a computer, but now I have a green screen, lights in my studio, and programs like Dolby After Effects and Magic Music Maker,” said Costa, who recently upgraded his camera to a Canon T3i, which he said is a good camera for filmmaking.
Most of Costa’s videos on YouTube are in the genre of action and sci-fi. “Occasionally, I write drama,” he added.
Costa said the most significant influence on his work is Director Christopher Nolan, who made 2008’s The Dark Knight.
“The Dark Knight made me interested in film, and Inception made me interested in writing and visual effects,” said Costa, adding that he is looking forward to seeing Nolan’s latest film, Interstellar, which opened Friday, November 7.
“Another influence on me when it comes to writing is Joss Whedon, who directed The Avengers,” said Costa. “Some of my other favorite films are The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the final Harry Potter movie. Both are classics.”
Along with fellow Honors English 10 student Sam Babineau, Costa directed a 3-D film trailer that answered some of the year’s Essential Questions from Mr. Allain’s Honors English 10 course, and the class was mesmerized by the quality of the video and most notably its 3-D effects.
“For the essential question video, Sam did the pre-production (writing) and I did the post-production,” said Costa. “I also did a 3-D post-conversion, where I moved the green-screen and duplicated the camera file to create different left-eye and right-eye perspectives.”
Another of Costa’s older projects he had completed was a fake trailer for a “Call of Duty” video game.
“It got 325,000 views and it was the first time I was paid for a YouTube video,” said Costa. “It wasn’t even something I directed; I just edited and made the effects for the video.”
Costa said he wants to further explore the world of drama and work on more serious projects.
“My next video is a blog about how I plan to make more serious videos,” Costa said. He would like to parlay his experience in video making into a career in the film or television industry. “I want to continue making videos, and doing the thing I love, and get more practice for a career in film or television.”
Some of his favorite videos of his own work are “Genetics” and “Teach Me How to Juggle” from the Geek Club, a junior high club taught by fan favorite teacher Mr. Andree. The club is well known for its video projects and open environment, among many other things.
“Kyle was never the best writer or moviemaker, but he is one of the most hard-working students I ever worked with,” said Andree. “Kyle took a small in-class project about junior high superheroes, and spent like 40 hours working on the effects, and turned it into something great.”
When asked how the Geek Club helps students, Mr. Andree said, “It gives kids a place to belong and hangout. They don’t have to be afraid to look stupid and they can be themselves.”
Andree thinks that Costa has a very promising future.
“He has good ideas in special effects, and camerawork, and he’s improving as a writer. I can see him making money doing special feature projects online, or directing those cool, cheesy made-for-TV movies,” said Andree.
One of the people who helped Costa along the way is fellow junior Sam Babineau. Sam shares a passion for filmmaking with Kyle, and as previously mentioned, worked on the writing for the Essential Question video in Mr. Allain’s Honors English class.
“I’ve been helping Kyle since eighth grade,” said Babineau. “Our best projects together were Genetics (The Super Hero Video) and the English project video.” She continued, “[Our next project will be] something with a storyline, both playing off and building upon stuff we’ve done.”
Thanks to his hard work and support from his loyal co-workers, it’s clear that Costa has done some great things with his video projects. He is definitely someone to watch for in the future.
By Patrick Briand
