Rock Star Stories and Tough Truths

Editor's Note: Brittany Rich, 17, is an award-winning filmmaker and associate director of The Rock Star Stories. She writes about her work and about speaking out against cyberbullying.

Video is my art form. I use it to show my opinion on topics that come up in my life.

I was 11 when I joined Swept Away Media-The Rock Star Stories, a music television show started by my sisters Jaime and Amanda and my brother Zachary, who is our student director. Today, The Rock Star Stories is in its ninth season and airs in 67 cities and on OSTN (Open Student Television Network), a 24-hour international network for student-produced programs. We mentor at-risk teenagers and train them to produce interview segments for the show.

As an associate director, I come up with a plan for a segment and then make it happen. I’ve interviewed MetroStation, We the Kings, Teddy Geiger, K-OS (above), The Rocket Summer, Locksley, Rooney (below) and Yellowcard, among others. I love interviewing musical artists and bands because I really enjoy learning about what brought them to choose a musical career and their bandmates. It's usually an interesting story, and musicians are great storytellers.

While it’s fun to meet musicians that you've only heard about and read about, my video work isn’t just about celebrities. I’ve written and filmed award-winning public service announcements (PSAs), and I was the United States representative last year to the Kids for Kids film festival in Italy. PSAs are short films about social issues. I began working on my first PSA when I was 16 after one of my peers died in a car accident because she didn’t have her seatbelt fastened. I had just received my own driver’s license and to be honest, I didn’t think prior to the accident that a seatbelt could really save someone’s life. This prompted me to make a 30-second public service announcement in her honor. It was the shock of truth that hit my community the hardest. Each frame of the film kept the audience engaged.

After the success of the seatbelt safety PSA, I decided to take on cyberbullying and teen pregnancy. With the Internet being available so readily, young people are using it sometimes in a harmful way, like cyber harassment. I created the PSA “Bullying Hurts” to make people more aware of what simple words can actually do to a person. Cyberbullying can be just as destructive as physical violence.

I started my latest short film, “Not the Song You Expected to Hear,” after the entertainment world went into complete chaos over the Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy, Check it out here.

Getting involved in a project like The Rock Star Stories is a great way to actually try out what you think you might like to do when you finish school. We write, direct, produce and edit the whole show ourselves, and if it doesn't come out well, it's up to us to fix it. I've made some awesome friends with other kids who are interested in filmmaking.

Photos: Courtesy of Brittany Rich

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of first-person articles by teens who are making a difference in the world. Their message to you: Don’t wait for an invitation—make your own opportunities and get involved.

Comments

[Samantha Lee]

People always have something they want to talk about. However, we usually don't make others understand it the way we want them to. Novels, comics and movies are ways people express their thoughts. Making a film is very interesting but also hard. It’s interesting because you’re like a cook who is putting every ingredient together. It’s hard because you have to work with others and make sure they know what’s on your mind.