By Brendan Beng ’26
In today’s age of influencer mania, more people than ever before are picking up videography. Even with Choate students’ consistently busy schedules, there are a few who find joy in making memories into digital keepsakes. Four such individuals are Arissa Lee ’25, Aria Ramnath ’24, Kara Wang ’24, and Tariq El Mammann ’24.
Arissa Lee ’25
Lee posts monthly short-form content on Instagram recapping everyday moments, such as videos or pictures of her friends. “I’ll post videos of everything that happened, I’ll add in every picture of the month of September, or I’ll take small snippets of videos from the dance concert last year,” she said. “I wanted to have memories that I could show other people. Memories to share with my friends that I had them with.”
Lee’s favorite moments sprout from simple joys. “I visited a friend’s house. We went outside having a little picnic, and we painted watercolors,” she said. “I remember I got a clip of a bumblebee just landing on my friend’s finger. Just like very homey things like that, nothing extreme or flashy.”
Occasionally, Lee faces internal conflicts over her reasons for taking up videography. She said, “When I’m filming, sometimes I ask myself whether I’m living in the moment. Am I taking away from what I’m doing in the moment, or being rude, or making sure that people don’t mind that I’m filming them?” Balancing between producing a record of the memories and fully living in the moment proved to be a key consideration for Lee.
One important takeaway that Lee gained from being an amateur videographer was the importance of authenticity. “I love having this kind of video diary of sorts, but I shouldn’t be making these to impress others. I really want to do this for me,” she said.
Aria Ramnath ’24
Ramnath takes a unique approach with her “Seconds of the Day” series, a video collection of one second of each day of her senior year at Choate.
“I think about what will be the most camera-like photogenic moment, or what looks best in the video, or what was the most fun thing I’m doing that day,” she said. “I got the idea from Lauren [Kee ’24]. She did it a while back, and I thought I would copy her for my senior year.”
One obstacle that Ramnath faced was forgetting to record. “That’s a challenge for sure. I forgot to do Saturday and Sunday, and I had to forge clips for those days. So I recorded random things and plugged them in because I want to have something for every day,” she said. “I don’t want to skip days.”
For Ramnath, videography is not just a hobby, but a way to gain new perspectives on life. “I have started to look for the good in every day,” she said. “It’s actually quite a positive experience because of that.”
Kara Wang ’24
Wang shares her life with the world through YouTube vlogs. For her, creating videos also captures memories she can look back on when she graduates from Choate. “I really like writing, so I felt like creating videos was also pretty fun,” she said.
With the help of YouTube, Wang learned an invaluable lesson of confidence. “It takes a lot of self-confidence to put yourself out there because a lot of times when I’m recording myself, it’s like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ It feels really awkward, but then after a couple [of] videos, I kind of got used to it,” she said.
One of Wang’s favorite vlogs was one of her firsts: a candid review of dining hall meals. “It was very chaotic,” she said. “But as my first video, I feel like I just have some sort of attachment to it.”
Tariq El Mammann ’24
El Mammann elevates sports videos to the next level. He began making edits for different shows and movies he liked during the pandemic. “And then once quarantine ended, I expanded my horizon and started to edit that stuff into what you see today in my montages,” he said.
For El Mammann, the biggest hurdle was juggling videography and his demanding schedule.“You obviously have to make sacrifices to make time to create videos,” he said. “It is a tedious process that takes time. Last year, I made a hockey mixtape, which took two months to put together.”
El Mammann credits other editors, including alumnus Saif Nazer ’23 and QN Productions, as inspirations for his work. “What motivates me to make videos is those who have inspired people,” he said.
From spending time on the field to hanging out with friends, Choate students use videography to capture precious moments and little joys in life. With such enthusiastic student videographers, who knows who the next Choate vlogger star will be.
