STARKVILLE — As Mississippi State University student Wyn Dawson walked along the Trail of Big Trees this weekend in the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a female Red-cockaded Woodpecker tapping determinedly on a nearby tree.
The 25-year-old Tunica native halted, scanned the green canopy above and quickly located the bird. He then lifted his camera to his eye and focused on the Woodpecker for nearly 10 minutes as it first searched for bugs in one tree, then moved to another.
Dawson filmed silently, then continued his stroll down the trail, where he encountered a snake on a sun-drenched bank. He stopped and filmed the dark brown reptile from several angles, just as he did the Woodpecker, making sure not to disturb it in its natural habitat.
In what has become a typical day in the life of the aspiring musician and filmmaker, Dawson returned to his home in Starkville that afternoon and added his own music to the videos.
What are you studying here at Mississippi State?
I”m in the College of Arts and Sciences, under communication. My major is journalism and broadcasting.
What are you looking to do career-wise?
Career-wise, I”d like to get in to the film industry. My favorite thing to do is probably shoot wildlife. I”d like to do some documentary work. I”m looking more to run a camera than anything else. I do like writing and stuff too. I had a job at The Reflector (Mississippi State University”s student newspaper) for a little while because I was at one point looking to work at a newspaper. I still might eventually do that, but my main focus is really going to be on video.
When you say wildlife stuff, are you talking about possibly working with National Geographic or getting a job like that?
Yeah, working somewhere where I get to travel around to different places is what I would like to do.
What is it about that kind of job that appeals to you?
Always moving around, always being out, finding different things. It”s not so much sitting in the office. I like to be out in the field, as they say. I like doing in-field work.
What are you doing now to try to set yourself up for that kind of job?
Right now I”m just going out, filming stuff on my own, trying to get good at working the cameras. I”m working with different types of software, video-editing software, and kind of building up my (experience) with those. I”m trying to start my career in broadcasting, but as far as my actual broadcast career, I haven”t done a whole lot other than what I”ve done in school.
What kind of film would you like to focus on if you were to go on that career path?
Well, just like I said, documentary work, traveling work. They teach you pretty much everything. I don”t per se want to be in the “movie business.”
That”s what I was getting at. I wasn”t sure if you were trying to make big movies, as well.
I mean, I would like to do that if I could get a job doing that. I”m very interested in movies. It”s just none of my schooling has anything to do with that type of filming, so I”ll probably stick with what I went to school for and that”s broadcast. Mostly news broadcast, but I would rather get out of the news aspect and go more into the documentary-making and film-making.
Tell me about your music background and where you want to go with it?
I started playing guitar when I was about 14 years old. Actually, my mom knew a guy who played the guitar and she asked me one day if I would be interested in learning the guitar. In Tunica, there”s really not a whole lot to do, so I was like “Yeah, I”m interested in that.”
How much are you playing these days?
These days I still play guitar every day. As far as shows, I don”t really play any shows around here. I”ve played a couple open-mic nights.
Do you see any kind of merging of your film and your music in the future?
Definitely. Even now when I make short videos I try to record my own soundtracks for them.
Stuff that you”ve actually written and recorded?
Yeah. I use (Apple) GarageBand and just lay down a couple tracks, maybe some loops, and I might add those to some of the videos that I”ve shot. So, I don”t really use other people”s songs because of copyright laws and stuff. I don”t want to get tied into that so I figured the easiest thing, since I know music, is to put my own music to my own shots. That is probably the best thing for me to do. Most of the stuff that I film has been wildlife stuff lately. Maybe some small shots of plant life and stuff like that. I”m really interested in the outdoors. Another thing I would really like to get into is actually shooting music. Maybe shooting bands. That would be something I”d be really interested in.
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