Hi, I introduced myself last week, and I'm going to do it again!
Hello! My name is Clark Tolleson, also known as "Editor Clark" (branding, folks!). When I was little, my mom and dad recording home videos of my little performances on our mantel in the living room - I'd perform and re-create little skits I saw on Nickelodeon's All That or The Amanda Show, I'd sing karaoke, I was entertaining friends and family. Fast forward to 2010, I was an awkward eighth grader who began a YouTube channel, and from that day, I kept with my hobby that turned into my career.
On March 28th this month, it'll be 14 years since I began my videography journey - that's approx. half of my entire life. It still doesn't feel possible that it's been that long, and that I'm still here!
Throughout all of high school, I made weekly videos. I played different characters. I'm smiling as I type this because those memories were a total blast, and looking back now, those videos are cringey, they're not easy to watch (lol!), BUT I had a platform to launch my hobby into a career. I had a lot of support from friends and family; the commenters, though, they weren't my biggest fans.
"This video does suck, and you should kill yourself"
"Get off of youtube plz your awful"
"How do i delete your channel?"
It was bad.
Regardless, after high school, I went off to college. I studied digital media, interned all over my city, volunteered whenever and wherever, volunteered tech at my church from 2010 to 2018, and I also felt like my creative style wasn't something I enjoyed as much as I used to. I began experimenting with vlogging, with Flash animation, and I made one more video featuring my favorite YouTube character, Cameron Chipmunk, before posting on YouTube became less frequent.
I turned my hobby into a career. I moved to Texas in 2018, began working in TV advertising, promotions, and I've been writing a crime mini-series since 2021. In 2019, I wrote a spec film script, then it turned into a short film, then I got too excited that it accidentally turned into a feature film lol! I figured, lets take a step back and write a prequel mini-series.
It's fascinating being 28 years old, doing this for 14 years, and feeling like I've done both so much... and also so little.
I know I've done so little and there's so much more to accomplish. My goal with Stage 32 is to meet y'all, learn from y'all, and make our industry better.
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thanks a lot Richard M Kjeldgaard
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Welcome! I'm in the same boat. IT by day, writer by night. The battle between security and art is my life story. LOL
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hi Jonathan Lantz ! nice to meet you. yeah, very well put:) security and art it is
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Welcome to the team Mariia!
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thanks a lot Morne Patterson !