As the owner and creative director of the video production company Two Mile Media, Grant Smith creates video content for clients in the Upper Peninsula and beyond. According to Grant, the year he spent studying at 海角视频 helped him get to where he is today.
Grant graduated from high school in 2015. As a homeschooled student, he knew he wanted to go to college to study film, which he had been interested in since he was ten years old. However, he didn鈥檛 know where he wanted to start his college education.
鈥淢y parents encouraged me to get my general education classes done locally to save money,鈥� he said.
Thus, Grant decided to sign up for classes at Bay during the Fall 2015 semester. He was also encouraged by the school鈥檚 convenient location and strong class selection.
鈥淭he year I started at Bay, they had just introduced a digital cinema class鈥攖hat was of interest, too,鈥� he said.
In the Fall 2015 semester and Winter 2016 semester, Grant was a full-time Bay student majoring in art and design. While he took general education classes like math, psychology, and economics at Bay, he also enrolled in two art classes per semester (including the school鈥檚 then-new digital cinema course).
These classes proved to be a highlight of Grant鈥檚 海角视频 experience. More specifically, he said Kristine Granger (the instructor for his art classes and Bay鈥檚 fine arts coordinator) proved to be one of his favorite teachers ever.
鈥淲e were encouraged to think about art more deeply and from multiple perspectives鈥攂oth as an artist and as a viewer,鈥� he said.
Additionally, Grant submitted pieces he worked on in his art classes to Bay鈥檚 student art exhibitions. There, he won awards in the photography and cinema categories.
After the Winter 2016 semester, Grant transferred to Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay. He stayed there for another year before transferring one more time to Compass College of Film and Media in Grand Rapids.
In 2019, Grant received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Compass College (with a concentration in film production). Though he started putting his new credentials to work shortly after graduating, unforeseen circumstances forced him to change plans.
鈥淎fter graduating, I started to work as a freelance videographer in the Grand Rapids area鈥攂ut then, COVID-19 hit and the city shut down,鈥� he said.
As a result, he moved back home to Gladstone in 2020.
鈥淏y that summer, I was getting tired of staying home, so I got back to work on establishing my own LLC. I began looking for clients in the area who needed help producing videos for their websites and social media,鈥� Grant said.
That LLC was Two Mile Media, which Grant still runs today. Though he juggled Two Mile Media with a part-time job at TV6 for a few months in 2020 and 2021, Grant has focused entirely on his company ever since. And while he is currently working to expand his business鈥� client base, he said things are off to a solid start.
At Two Mile Media, Grant is responsible for everything from planning, filming, and editing videos to handling accounting for his company.
鈥淪ince I鈥檓 a business owner, there鈥檚 always something to keep me busy,鈥� he said.
He said the lessons he learned about filmmaking at Bay have helped him thrive in this position.
鈥淚n my digital cinema class, we were instructed to develop ideas, write scripts, and find locations, props, and actors for our films. That gave me real-world experience on how to go about the filmmaking process, which I have been able to apply to a more corporate setting,鈥� Grant said.
Grant鈥檚 time as a Bay student also helped him understand the importance of teamwork in the working world.
鈥淜ristine cultivated a culture of collaboration, where students helped each other when they needed ideas. I鈥檝e brought that mindset into the work I do every day鈥擨 can鈥檛 do everything myself, and other people are gifted in certain areas I鈥檓 not gifted in,鈥� he said.
Based on his own experiences, Grant said local students planning to go to college should seriously think about starting at Bay.
鈥淏ay has a lot of resources and opportunities that I didn鈥檛 know about until I started going to school there. They helped me quite a bit when I was starting out in my college career,鈥� he said.