Local Videographer Takes Giving Back To His Community Very Serious
Grand Rapids native Marcus Thomas is a professional videographer who not only runs his own business but also finds time to give back to the community by educating youth about the career field of videography. In this interview with the Grand Rapids Times, he discusses how he got started, some unsuspected challenged that he faced, working with local youth groups and more.
GRT: What is your occupation?
Thomas: I am a videographer and a commercial producer at Wood TV 8.
GRT: When did you become interested in learning how to use a camera?
Thomas: It started for me as early as my sophomore year of high school. I didn't get into filming professionally until my freshmen year of college.
GRT: So you went to school to learn about film and production work?
Thomas: I went to school but didn't complete my degree, but being able to make connections allowed me to get an internships. I got an internship my freshmen year of college with an organization that I use to be apart of called GR Initiative For Leaders and they nee they needed help with promoting and advertising on social media. So with my skills and the equipment that I started to invest in on my own and from there I got more and more clients from just word of mouth.
GRT: What is the name of your business?
Thomas: All Marcus Productions, LLC and a DBA called Morph Media Square in which I teach video classes to middle school and high school students in partnership with youth organizations and schools.
GRT: How did working with youth come about?
Thomas: I was already free lancing when I started and as a result of doing free lance work, I got interested in teaching video production classes and opportunities kept coming up for me to just talk about what it is that I do and they developed into them asking me to give them a quote for how much it I would charge for teaching a class for two weeks or a month and similar opportunities developed out of that. Right now I am working with New City Kids and I have been working with them since 2021. I created my own curriculum and most of the curriculum focuses on impact, leadership, diversity and really dives in to video production and addresses the preproduction, production and postproduction process.
GRT: Did you find it to be challenging working with youth?
Thomas: Working with youth is rewarding in a bigger picture kind of way. I get all kinds of students with different personalities. Some are more reserved, some are more outgoing and want to be in front of the camera and some only want to be behind the camera. It is rewarding because I am walking along side youth in a pivotal moment in their lives and I am giving back. I remember my experience trying to get into video production as an African American male in Grand Rapids, which is already got its own challenges as far as diversity and especially in the professional creative field. When I started, I tried to work for a lot of agencies and when I was in high school I remember trying to find places that would let me job shadow just to get an idea of if I wanted to do video production professionally and I got a lot of no's. I got a lot of around about answer like 'we do some collaborations with this high school or a private school or a predominately White college but we don't have anything for a student like you who is apart of GRPS'. That was a huge motivator for me to want to teach classes because I know that if you don't have a mentor in this field, it is kind of hard to even find an entry point into a professional career. A lot of the business is who you know, especially if you are talking about being hired into a full time position. It is unspoken, but you pretty much have to know someone who can vouch for you, even if you have great work.
GRT: How did employment with News Center 8 come about?
Thomas: I had already gotten experience and I was fortunate enough after going through all of my challenges with trying to job shadow, I went the route of filling out a resume and a portfolio and by the time I applied to Wood TV 8m I had gotten about five years under my belt of free lance work. From my freshmen year of college up until the present day. I am a commercial producer, so that means that the commercials that you see on that channel, a lot of them work with me. I work with companies like Bigby, car companies like Burger. My number one passion today is reaching back and providing opportunities for more youth. For people who have an opportunity to walk along side youth in elementary, middle or high school, take the time to share with them what you do and tell them about your road to getting to where you are presently. I remember having a student who was going into his freshmen year of high school tell me that my class helped him to not want to commit suicide and that was a very heavy thing to hear but it also was encouraging to know that even though as small as teaching is to a lot of people, there is a huge value in just being present in the community and in the lives of youth.
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