Ethan, from media to military.
In this video? Ask for a change or have it taken down.
A media production graduate a semester from finishing is asked what his generation is supposed to do about work, and answers by describing friends who have graduated into nothing and a plan that ends with the military.
Ethan is from Ocean City, Maryland, came out to Boulder for four years, and has one semester left before he goes home. The near-term plan is modest and stated without embarrassment: work at a restaurant, surf for a while.
The question put to him is blunt about the conditions. You cannot make minimum wage and survive; what do people do about that? His answer starts with the people around him. “It is pretty hard right now. I have a bunch of friends, just graduated, have no idea what they’re doing, can’t get a job.”
He thinks his own field gives him some cover, and his reasoning is a small snapshot of the labour market this whole archive keeps bumping into: “I’m a media production major and minor in communications. So it’s kind of nice, because everyone’s trying to get some media out there. They need people who know how to make it.”
And then, in the same breath: “But I do think I’m going to go into the military.” He comes from a military family. The reply from behind the camera is not an argument, it is agreement that there are good people there.
The best part is the last minute, when the questions turn to what he actually likes. “I love the storytelling aspect of it. Really feeling that emotion through the visuals and the editing. That’s my favourite part. I’m a big editor.” The man filming him agrees on the spot, and says the thing every editor believes: “You can film anything you want, but as soon as you start editing, it can turn into a real masterpiece.”
Filmed by Tim Palka, from Pittsburgh, one of two pieces he shot for this archive. He also gives the clearest gloss anybody has offered on the name of the channel: We Them Media, as in we and them, and anyone anywhere who wants to be involved can be.
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