Myles Ditkoff

BFA Film and Media Arts

First Semester Junior

Expected Graduation Spring 2022

Ever since I was a kid I had my hands on a camera. When I was very little I used to film myself with a camcorder that my dad had. As I grew older in middle school I made mini vlogs for my Youtube channel using my IPod. One of my biggest influences ever since I was around this age was Youtube. Most of the youtubers I watched would vlog, but I also liked to watch youtubers that would focus on using more advanced cameras which grew my interest for filmmaking in general. Once I entered high school I immediately joined a film class freshman year, quickly going through all of the available film classes my school had to offer. I owe a lot to my film teacher in high school Mr. VanDerKern for the passion I have as he gave me every resource available.

After high school I enrolled into the University of Tampa with a B.F.A in Film and started on my career path. Early in college I just filmed my friends but as I got more serious about what type of career I could make out of it, I started to do freelance jobs. Eventually the portfolio work from filming on my own got me jobs with the UTampa Athletic Marketing team, the Tampa Bay lightning, and more recently I started my own media production agency with some business/film friends. So far at UT some teachers that have helped me on the process a lot are Professor Perkins and Professor Curry, both helping my stories and cinematography come to life.

I try to see film in a different light than I think most do. I have no interest in working in Hollywood, or any big production films like most film majors. At first I wanted to work on commercials, and while that is still sort of true, after an internship with a commercial post house in NYC I decided it may not be my best idea to work in that specific field. I realized my strong suit fell on the world my generation created, the social media world. This means creating smaller ads instead of large scale commercials; For example short Instagram videos for products, companies, sports etc. I have studied the way social media sells companies/products better and it drives me to create content.

I am first a cinematographer and an editor. I perform the best when I am operating the camera or behind the screen editing away. For the last 4 years I have filmed and edited at least one video every week with the exception of some holidays. I am also very technical when it comes to my job. I focus on knowing the settings of my camera in and out and helping with other filmmakers technical camera problems. I also spend countless hours on premiere, this leading to an advanced knowledge of the program. My weaknesses lie with directing as I am not as strong as a director than when I am behind the camera.