Humans of NGU: Whit White
Devon Willoughby, Contributing Writer
Whit White knows just about everything about filming short films and movies. White is a senior broadcast media major from Greenville, South Carolina, who attends North Greenville University. He’s been filming and editing short films since he was about 12. His father started his career in filmmaking as an independent film director a couple of years before White started filming, and White believes his dad may have been one of the reasons he pursued filmmaking. He doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps, but he was inspired by his father to make movies, but they made totally different movies. His father evaluates filmmaking from a marketing standpoint, whereas White evaluates filmmaking from an autistic perspective.
Not only did his father influence him into getting into the art of filmmaking, but this TV show called X Files was one of the main reasons he got into the filmmaking side of film. He said, “X-Files is a weird show, but each episode is interestingly structured, and a lot of them are direct references to old films.” And he believes this show is one of the things that got him into making films as a kid. His father bought him and his sister all the seasons of The X Files, which is a science fiction and horror genre TV show.
At the age of 13, he made his first short film. This film was modeled after the show that got him into filming. He called the quality of his first film “poorly made. The film was an X-Files fan film. Even though his first film was poorly made, he didn’t give up; he kept at it, and he believed his love for filmmaking evolved after that first movie. Towards the end of middle school starting high school, he said, ” I got into the mystery/horror genre of short films and that grew into detective and Sherlock Holmes type themes of short films.” Throughout high school, he continued to experiment with different types of movies and genres. But he didn’t study the art of filmmaking until high school. He began attending the fine arts center for digital filmmaking. Something Whit said that stuck with me was, “At the end of the day, filmmaking is networking, and when you’re starting in film, networking is everything, and it’s nice to surround yourself with people who are also interested in film and want to work in the film industry.” And that’s what he did, and after he graduated high school, he knew that filmmaking was the thing he wanted to do for his career.
White has been working in film for about 11 years and hopes to constantly improve his skills and knowledge of the art of film. His plans: after he gets his bachelor’s, he wants to get a regular 9 to 5 job, but he hopes it’s in HR. During that time, he hopes he can get his master’s in animation online somewhere, and after he gets his master’s, he hopes he can land a job for Pixar or a company like ILM Industrial Light and Magic.
