Q: So just tell me a little bit about yourself. What do you do here at Seven Lakes?

A: I’m Rodney Johnson and I’m in Spanish, I’m a sophomore and I’m in Digital Arts for my edits.

Q: Tell me about your edits. 

A: So the edits I do, I kind of do some anime edits, and I also do some school edits. Like one of the edits I was going to do for the school was going to be shown on Spartan TV. It was about these black superheroes, black people and black icons for the month of February, Black History month.

Q: Have you been editing all your life or did you start when you got to high school?

A: I started around sixth grade. The first time I edited, I used something called Funimate and I was using that for simple edits. I made one, it was the first one I did, and it was about an anime one named Hunter. It was fun, but I progressed after that. I went from Funimation to CapCut, and now I’m still using CapCut for the edits I do now, like I still use it to this day.

Q: Is it a process to get into that right mindset or do you just put whatever you think onto it and make it work?

A: It’s not really a mindset. You have to just go with the flow mostly, because when I do it I don’t really go in knowing what I want to do. I just kind of go in; let’s say I want to do like a music edit or have audio in the back of it, which is what I do for most of them. I usually have to listen to a couple of songs and I’ll go “okay, I’ll pick this one” and I’ll look up that song edited like a slowed down version or a sped up version or a reverb version. I’ll find it and use it and put clips of the audio into the edit that’s what I do for the process. You just have to roll with the flow.

Q: Is it hard to learn or get used to?

A: You know, at first it was a little hard because I was using Funimation and I didn’t really know how to use it at first, but I’d say after the first few times, it’s not that bad. It’s pretty easy afterwards. I say, like one of the free applications you can use is CapCut or AlrightMotion. I prefer CapCut because that’s what I’ve been using, but paid versions get you more and they come on computers. Adobe AfterEffects is for the more experienced, been doing it awhile and know how to use a computer kind of people. But I recommend CapCut.

Q: Do you hope to continue this?

A: I do hope to continue this. You know, I kind of post on Tik-Tok a little bit. I usually only make them to show friends. But yes, I do hope to continue this.