Unable to feel his hands or feet from the cold, falling snow, junior Matteo Gatchalian stood on the sidelines of the sectional finals boys soccer game with his camera and an umbrella, capturing pictures and videos of the game.
“My main goal when I’m taking pictures or videos is to show things that people in the stands might not see, even people on the sideline may not see,”said Gatchalian. “Showing feelings and emotions and all of that through my work is the main goal.”
Gatchalian takes sports photos and edits them with filters, effects and music. While editing videos, he selects clips from his cameras and picks a song to put into an editing software to add effects, buildups and transitions.
Gatchalian first became interested in editing and taking pictures as a freshman in his Introduction to Broadcasting class and eventually began sharing his work on social media at the beginning of the football season this year.
“[My account] was just a way of getting [pictures and videos] out to more people and spreading them out to not just the school but to parents and other people such as that,” said Gatchalian. “It also gave me a place to start sort of a portfolio for myself.”
According to broadcasting teacher Todd Rubin, when Gatchalian first started editing in Introduction to Broadcasting and Sportscasting his freshman year, Gatchalian was unsure if he had the capability and creativity to produce quality work, but now he has gotten more comfortable with taking risks, even if he may make mistakes.
“He’s not one of those students I have that tries to get out of doing stuff, he’s trying to do stuff,” said Rubin. “I have a basketball game, we need film, he’s the first who wants to do it because he looks at that as an opportunity for him to improve and, honestly, produce things that are good.”
According to junior Michael Miller, it is fun to see Gatchalian at warmups before soccer games because it is nice to have him there for support, and his content hypes fans up for games.
“He’s a good photographer, so I think that every sport likes it when he’s at their games because he gets good pictures,” Miller said.
According to Matteo Gatchalian’s dad, Ron Gatchalian, his son’s work gets people excited and helps people understand the human side of sports.
“He captures those moments and he finds those angles and he’s moving around and he’s interacting,” said Ron Gatchalian. “I think he just has an eye for capturing that moment and that particular time. That really helps tell the story.”
Matteo Gatchalian hopes to continue producing content in the future.
“This is something I want to go into college for,” said Matteo Gatchalian. “One of my dreams is to be a sports photographer or sports videographer for an NFL team oran NBA team.”