~ Submitted by Bedford TV
It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye and well wishes to Bedford TV’s Production Manager, Mike Davis. Mike’s talent, creativity, and dedication truly made an impact on BTV over the last year and a half, and he will be greatly missed!
We asked Mike to share a little bit about his time at Bedford TV and some of his favorite projects. Read his story below.
“Hi, my name is Michael Davis. I’m the outgoing Production Manager at BTV and I manage the productions at BTV, from the daily ones to the big projects like graduation and our virtual fundraisers. I also create new curriculums for classes and teach them as well. I have been able to live out one of my dreams while working here: to make a difference in the community by using media.
Here is the story of how I got here and some of my favorite moments at BTV.
“Growing up my dad taught me how to use a camera at a very young age. I also participated in filmmaking camps and volunteered at WinCAM in my hometown of Winchester. I’ve always loved making home movies and acting out different scenes with my sister and my friends. What sparked my love for film was from watching the first ‘Fast and the Furious’ movie on VHS. I loved seeing the behind-the-scenes footage. It was exciting to watch them drive a car off a ramp and see the explosions from 4 different camera angles for this one moment in the movie. I would re-watch the film over and over and think ‘Man, how did they film that?’ This is what sparked my love for film and made me want to study it in college. I attended Curry College where my professor, Padrick Ritch, took me under his wing and gave me a lot of guidance on how I can make a career out of filmmaking. While there, I met my fiancé, Laura, who was also pursuing a concentration in film. She has a very good eye with the camera, and I’ve been lucky to freelance with her side-by-side.
“Within my first few weeks of working at BTV, I met two students, Healy and Matthew. They were editing the National Census video, and out of nowhere, Healy started making up lyrics about the Census to the instrumental song they wanted to use in the video. To be honest, it was very catchy! I still have it stuck in my head a year and a half later. I said to her, ‘We need to go record that right now!’. She’s a very talented singer and songwriter. If you can make something that catchy right away, you have a real gift. As a musician, it was such a cool moment to see her make something out of nothing. Later that week, we filmed a music video for it, along with Matthew, Jessie, and Ben. It’s called the ‘Census Music Video’. It’s goofy, but that’s what filmmaking is all about. Just coming up with ideas with your friends and filming something.
“I had only been with BTV for a few weeks before the pandemic hit and everything shut down. When we were first told we had to go home, we thought it would only be for a couple of weeks. As we all know, it turned into something completely different. Most of my time at BTV has been working from home, and it has been quite an experience!
“Something that never skipped a beat during the pandemic was the BTV News. I took over being the director for the news for quite some time. In the beginning of the pandemic, the crew would send me recordings of them reading the script. Then I would edit it and put it all together with photos and videos to support the stories. It was a lot of work and never was ready in time for the regular news. So, I came up with the idea to do it over Zoom. It felt weird at first, but it worked well!
“A month or so into the pandemic Katie [Duval] messaged me about an idea she had. She wanted to hold a virtual fundraiser to support ‘Operation: Feed the Soul!.’ I said, “It sounds like a great idea, let’s do it in 3 weeks.” She thought I was crazy, but we did it anyway. It was one of the most stressful 3 weeks for us. We held so many meetings with the ‘Operation: Feed the Soul!’ team and everyone came up with great ideas to make it work. The BTV team made a video to promote the idea to the community, and we worked into the wee hours of the night to secure performers. I reached out to people that lived on the other side of the country, and even they sent in videos. I even filmed a video with a local band, Soul of Boston, specifically for the fundraiser. It was beautiful to bring so many people together for such a great cause.
“I’ve always been determined to make sure things look as good as humanly possible, and I always did it for the community. I didn’t care how much work it was; I was driven. I felt bad for the families and students who didn’t get to have a normal graduation, a normal sports game with their parents in the stands, or normal classes. I was determined to figure out how I could make those experiences better than they had ever been. I made sure that grandparents, friends, and families that couldn’t be at graduation felt like they were at graduation with their loved ones. So instead of filming it like a traditional graduation, I tried to treat it like a film. I got many compliments after that from so many people I’ve never met, and it made me feel very good. But I never did it for the compliments, I did it for the families.
“Similarly, when we started to film sports again, I was so excited. I felt so bad for the parents and families that couldn’t be there to watch their athletes, so I did my best to make it look good. At first, it was very difficult as I’ve never filmed sports before, and we could only bring a limited number of crew members. Luckily, we ended up meeting Tony Melfi who taught us so much about filming sports. Given his background at ESPN, it made so much of a difference learning from him. He really is a master.
“I also won’t forget when I met this new student, Aram, who I was teaching how to film sports. I could tell that he really liked it. The next day I was filming a different game and he wasn’t on the schedule to be helping. I was up in the press box and noticed him down at the field. He locked eyes with me, and we both smiled and waved. I thought he was just saying hi. But he came up to the press box and asked me if he could use the switcher and I said ‘Absolutely!’ I was so excited that he loved it so much! I really hope he can come in and operate the big switchboard in our studio. Any of our producers reading this, please reach out to Aram. He is a Rockstar!
“Another student I loved filming sports with was Matthew Dill, who has been a volunteer for us for a very long time. We were in sync with each other. He knew the shots I wanted before I even asked for them.
“I loved being able to create my own curriculum and teach classes to all ages. My favorite class was the iPhone Videography class. I loved teaching people with different experience levels and showing them that you don’t need an expensive camera to go out and make content. You can just use the one that’s always in your pocket. The famous photographer Chase Jarvis once said that the best camera is the one that’s with you.
“It’s been a real wild ride and has been unbelievably rewarding this past year and a half. I will always remember my time here and I will miss the BTV family very much. I’ll really miss all of the staff, volunteers, interns, producers, and students. It’s been such an incredible experience to be helping to run a TV station as my first job out of college. BTV would not be what it is without the BTV family so shoutout to Marc Gustafson, Sonal Patel, Jenn Puhle, and Katie Duval. You all have worked so incredibly hard to make this station what it is today, so thank you. It has been so rewarding to be able to make a difference in so many people’s lives with just the power of content creation.”
Bedford TV wishes Mike the best of luck in his new venture and we hope that he will come back and visit us again soon. Congratulations, Mike!
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