The Buzz

Owen Phillips, a North Reading High School junior, has gained traction this year with his Instagram account. His username, “ophillms”, is a play on words with his last name and his cinematography content. He has amassed over six hundred followers since he started. 

He began his account this past fall, motivated to stay present in the sports community. “I got hurt my sophomore year track season,” he says. “I couldn’t run anymore, like long distance. I got plantar fasciitis in both my feet.” Unfortunately, this injury set him back. Previously a member of the North Reading High School soccer team, he was saddened that he could no longer play when fall came around. He narrates his thought process, “I want to be a part of the team, so I was like, what can I do? And I said, I like videos. I have a camera. Might as well be a manager on the team and take videos on the sidelines.”

When asked about his first steps, Owen says, “The first thing I filmed was at Wayland’s soccer game. It was really intense, and we lost, but I didn’t post anything. That was the first thing I filmed and edited and I shared it just to the team. The first thing I posted was a clip of Kieran Miller. Everyone really liked it and people were really excited. They were like, oh, we want you to post more.”

He thanks the North Reading community for the support they have provided him and credits them with how quickly he grew popular. “North Reading is so tight knit and close that it helps spread to the entire town, and eventually outside to other towns. The North Reading culture itself, of being so welcoming and kind and supportive, that was the main thing.”

Owen remains grateful for the connectivity and networking that social media provides. “Everyone has Instagram. YouTube isn’t really the way to go for short content. There’s TikTok, I guess, but Instagram was the easiest way for me. People share [my videos] there.” That being said, social media can be a brutal environment, especially for new content creators. “I was nervous to see if people would be like, oh, this is weird. I was concerned with my video quality because it was an older camera…Thankfully, people thought it was cool. People’s perception…with just randomly starting up…that’s always, like, the hardest thing.”

Though he only began sharing his work this year, Owen’s love for film began in his early life. “I loved watching movies growing up…My favorite movies are definitely Jurassic Park, Beautiful Boy, and Dead Poets Society. All great movies that made me love film.” Owen remembers the creativity he has pursued throughout his life, and views sports as his motivating factor for beginning to dedicatedly pursue the hobby. “I have a love for being creative. I can bring these all together—my love for film, my love for being creative, my love for sports.” 

His work also calls for a significant time commitment. “With filming, obviously it’s hard to track and follow the sport itself…but filming is however long [the game] is. Editing takes up the majority of the time. You have to start with picking apart the individual clips you want to use, edit them all together, edit them to sound, color grade them, add effects, overlays, transitions…I’m new to it, so [time] could easily be brought down, but on average, four to five hours.” He is completely self taught, which creates a barrier in his abilities, but he learns from YouTube tutorials and enjoys the investment of time it takes.

Despite working to perfect his craft in sports videography, that is not where Owen’s true dreams lie. “My dream is to go into the directing world of music videos. I’m trying to film concerts…what I love about filming sports videos is the music, lining up all the clips and action to music. I want to relate the shots with the beats, sounds, and lyrics for music videos.” He also plans to pursue a career in the field, to a degree. “Majoring in film is…risky. It’s not stable and there’s not much you can do with it. That’s really only the movie industry route and I don’t want to do that. I’ll probably major in communications or business film and then have a minor in film.”

Through this process, Owen hasn’t just gained filming skills. He has learned to step outside of his comfort zone and sees great reward in doing so, urging others to do the same in following their passions. “Don’t be afraid. Just do it. For filming specifically, no matter what camera you have, just do it. iPhone cameras are so good nowadays, and you can film anything. Don’t be nervous or hesitant to do it, because once you do it…you’ll really enjoy it…there’s support based around it. Take that first step.”