Arts & Entertainment

From Ohio to NYC, Student Filmmaker Earns Honors

ALHS senior MacKenzie Bates witnesses Occupy Wall Street, offers award winning perspective of New York.

An senior was able to whittle hours of footage and hundreds of photos from a trip to New York City, including some from the Occupy Wall Street movement, earning recognition at the state level.

MacKenzie Bates’ two films, Empire State of Mind and The Promise Land, are a combination of footage and some of the 500 photos Bates took while scouting New York University as a possible college option to pursue film making.

The result is two impressive films, similar to music videos that impressed local and state judges at the Reflections Art Fair statewide competition. Both films earned “Best In Show” honors at the Avon Lake level March 11 and Empire State of Mind won honorable mention at the state level. The film will be shown in Columbus at the state level.

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The latter film, set to the song Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, shows New York City from hundreds of angles from well known landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty and Macy’s to more pedestrian street fairs and early morning garbage trucks making their rounds.

“The Empire State of Mind is a video conveying the diversity of the people that live in and visit New York City and the diversity of the city itself,” Bates said on the film’s accompanying submission to the Reflections Art Fair. “New York City is home to people of all ethnic backgrounds and upbringings. It is a place where you could meet anyone, do anything or be anyone that you want.”

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The films fit the theme of this year’s Reflections Fair, “What Diversity Means to Me.”

Bates has visited New York four times since 2007 and said each time he is reminded how hard working the people are.

On his last trip, during a record breaking Nor’easter Oct. 27 – 30, 2011, “I saw a pizza delivery man riding a bicycle through the horrible conditions,” he said.

“It was my fourth time visiting the city,” Bates said, who went with parents Donna and Rick Bates, brother Kyle grandparents Steve and Herk Horensky on a eastbound trip that included a trip to New York University, which Bates is considering attending.

“I planned on doing a lot of filming before I left for NYC, but I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the footage yet,” Bates said. “I have always loved the song ‘The Empire State of Mind’ by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys, so I thought about possibly using it, but I wasn't sure how I would set the video to it.”

Editing is time consuming; each film takes seven to nine hours to edit.

Bates also encountered the phenomenon of Occupy Wall Street and created another video, The Promise Land, which also earned a Best of Show award in Avon Lake.

“Sweeping panoramic videos and photos signal the arrival at Occupy Wall Street,” Bates said in a write up of the film, which is set to G.O.O.D. Morning, G.O.O.D. Night by Malik Yusef. The next minute or so is a beat-set slideshow of Occupy Wall Street.

“Though many don’t agree with what OWS protesters were protesting for, all Americans should be able to agree that it is inspiring to see thousands of people from all walks of life come together at one place to stand for what they believe in.”

Footage includes six “Good Samaritans” assisting a man who fell near the Brooklyn Bridge.

“I was outside looking over the balconies at the snow-filled Brooklyn Bridge and New York skyline, and then I heard a ‘thud,’" Bates noted. “I looked down to find out that a middle-aged man had slipped in the slush. Before I could go down the steps to help, people walking by stopped and assisted the man. So I quickly got out my video camera and taped the now-six Good Samaritans lifting the man up and guiding him indoors.”

The artist, photographer, filmmaker, writer and ALHS soccer player has had his photos displayed at the high school in a one-man presentation. He is also a member of the school’s first Robotic Club and created his own code for his website, itbmac.com, which displays his works.


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