South Fayette senior recognized nationally for media work
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Soleille (Lilly) Green did not really have media experience when she entered high school, but she enrolled in video production class because she thought it would be fun.
Fast Forward three years and needless to say the South Fayette High School senior has not only found media to be fun, but her work has also brought her national honors by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS).
Green, 18, was named one of six nominees in the Outstanding Editor category for the Mid-Atlantic region based on a variety of pieces that she submitted to showcase her work as an editor.
Also, her public service announcement, “Minutes Matter,” earned one of six regional nominations for the Norman Felsenthal Young Producer’s Award.
Norman Felsenthal was a professor of communications at Temple University for 32 years and author of the Mass Communication textbook. As a NATAS trustee, he founded and chaired the organization’s scholarship program.
“I’m definitely honored. Honestly, I was a little bit surprised,” Green said. “I was super shocked, super honored and super proud to honestly receive it.”
The NATAS High School Student Production Awards focus on excellence in television and related media including local stations and student productions. This marked the first year that South Fayette submitted entries to the competition.
Green said since many PSA are 60 seconds in length, she wanted to display just how much can be done in that time period with a PSA in which she was able to get many of her friends to appear.
“My generation is very screen prone,” she explained. “The thought of doing things in a minute led me to make an awareness video about the value of time, not spending too much time on your phone. Those are two messages I communicate through the PSA – make sure you’re spending your time how you want to and you’re not wasting it all away online.”
Indeed, it has been quite a successful journey since enrolling in a video production class her freshman year. She was putting together her schedule and saw something that piqued her interest.
“I was looking for something new to do my freshman year,” she recalled. “I saw video production listed and thought that sounded kind of cool. I like movies. I like TV. I figured I’d take that and see what it’s about. I took it and I loved it. I became friends with people in the class and realized I kind of had a passion for it. It slowly went from something I just did that was fun to something that I really value.”
Green’s work also has earned recognition at the Digital Media Arts Consortium Festival held annually at Robert Morris University. It was there that she first submitted the “Minutes Matter” PSA.
Andy Marinzel, video production teacher and media club sponsor, was not surprised that
Green received national recognition.
“That’s the kind of work that she does all the time,” he said. “I’m extremely proud and excited. If I were to pick one or two people to win the award, she would be one of them. She is extremely driven and whatever she does, she does very well.”
Marinzel added that Green’s editing, along with the concept, of her PSA really stood out.
“I thought it was really unique in the fact that is what can you get done in a minute and focused on the fact that it might not seem like a lot of time, but when you add them up, they do matter,” he said.
“She put a ton of time into editing,” Marinzel continued. “Even if it’s a minute long, all of those cuts take a lot of time to pick out the second or two that you want in there while sifting through possibly minutes to hours of video. It’s not something easy and it takes a lot of planning and preparation.”
Green, who is president of the school’s media club, plans to major in film in college along with English or marketing. She hasn’t made her college selection as of yet, but her goal is to definitely be in the film industry.
“Film production is what I’m going for,” Green said. “I want to go to college to figure out what specifically in the industry I want to do. Right now, I handle all aspects of production from screenwriting to directing to editing, and I genuinely do love all of it.”
In college, she adds, she’ll “discover the niche” that’s the best fit.
Here is Greens PSA, “Minutes Matter” https://youtu.be/DmdiHkmHi5s