Meredith's Story

My name is Meredith Young. And when I was 12 years old, my father gave me a Polaroid camera and told me just get out and explore. And, and we didn't have a TV. A lot of other children thought that's really weird. You're missing out on all these, you know, really cool, you know, get smart TV shows.

But my father took us once a week to the movie theater. So, for college, I went off to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where I majored in molecular biology. And, by end of freshman year, I, heard about of course, I could take sophomore year, there'd be a visiting filmmaker in Baltimore who under the sponsorship of, the head of the humanities department. And I did a brief interview with doctor. Maxey and I got accepted into this filmmaking workshop and I would get course, of course credit and help out this filmmaker who was filming in Baltimore.

And yes, this filmmaker, there were classes during the week where you learned filmmaking techniques. You know, he taught us about directing and being a cinematographer versus a director and roles and all that. And as part of the course, every Saturday for the whole semester and you knew this going in, and they only, it was a very like only like 12 students in, in this course. Every Saturday I'd hop a bus from Johns Hopkins to Downtown Baltimore and go to a different part of Downtown Baltimore. We would be filming one scene of this film for that Saturday.

And as a student participant, they paired us up with a union electrician. I was gaffer number two and was responsible for the lighting from one particular angle and the other students would, would be in different parts of the space, the recording space. And I was young, but I missed out on traditional college girl stuff of, you know, but I didn't care. I was, I was psyched. I met creative people.

The director of, this film saw that, you know, that I was really dedicated, that I was, you know, that I was showing up. And he said, you know, you should join the Maryland filmmakers association. And I said, I always, as a child, I always thought that being a filmmaker meant being the director or the cinematographer. And I'm like, I'm just doing the lighting. And he said, the director said, when people see this film, they're gonna see the light reflected off the actors faces in its light that you shown on those faces.

He says, you are a filmmaker. Eventually, I found a regular full time job, out here in Western Massachusetts that was looking for somebody with my educational background. And, and another thing to help, I found out after they hired me on my resume, I mostly played up, you know, what I, but I've mentioned at the bottom that I was a member of the Maryland filmmakers association and had been a judge on the Baltimore international film festival, which all still exists. And the president of the company saw that, and he had ambitions of creating a media department within, the building. So that kind of sealed the deal when he brought me in.

So, you and I have talked a lot about, how it's important to be in touch with both your more artistic side even as, like a STEM oriented academic person. Do you wanna talk any more about how, about how, addressing both sides of of, like, your needs have, kind of ended up in positivity in your own life? Oh, it's totally, both in high school and in college and in at every stage. My unconscious brain knew that I needed to do both. I knew I needed to earn a living, which is where having the stem in the finance background helps pays the rent.

But the other, you know, a lot of me knew that to keep my sanity, you know, that what really pumped me up wasn't making money. It was paying the bills and then going out at night and just getting involved in the whole art scene, in, in North Hampton. There were students like me who really need that other, that other part of your life. It's something that really gets you psyched up, you know, like, okay, I need to be a responsible person and earn income and live an independent life.