Alumni Spotlight: Jason Barnada’s hardwork pays off in Emmy
After graduating from North Penn High School in 2010, Jason Barnada never expected to be holding an Emmy in his hands six years after learning the very basics of camera work and video editing. Barnada always knew he wanted to do something in the communications field, but just couldn’t figure out what. The vast selection of courses at the high school helped him find his passion in post-production and editing.
Barnada’s interest in video production and filmography began around sophomore year when he decided to spontaneously join the North Penn Television crew. His first job: catching the highlights of the football game that same night. “It was one of the first football games of my tenth grade year, and they threw me on camera and it just kind of kept going from there,” he stated.
Since high school, Barnada has gained even more experience in the world of post-production as he attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania for two years, and transferred into the Cinema Production Program in Point Park University in downtown Pittsburgh. His time at Point Park University proved to be worthwhile, because a big Hollywood production landed right in his lap. Barnada’s first real taste of the post-production field was working on a documentary series called The Chair that appeared on Stars (aired in September 2014) where he was an assistant editor. He worked alongside Chris Moore – a big-name Hollywood producer who’s produced films such as American Pie, Goodwill Hunting, and Project Greenlight. The lead editor, Rob Henry, was Barnada’s mentor who took him under his wing to show him the world of filmography and production. This project itself has opened so many doors for Barnada, as he sticks his foot in the door. The show Hard Knocks won best documentary series for a T.V. show, so as the associate producer, Barnada received his own personal Emmy Award along with the rest of his team.
“It’s an interesting experience, especially because I’m only 24,” explained the associate producer when asked about his feelings of winning the award.
Although he wasn’t able to attend the actual award show, Barnada still holds his Emmy close to his heart, as he stares down the path of new opportunities and ideas. His favorite part about his job is “being in the center of everything, being an assistant editor.”
Barnada started working at NFL Films in Mount Laurel, NJ June to September 2015, being an editor and associate producer of the show Hard Knocks which followed the Houston Texans’ training camp. His main role was to “cut key moments to be put into the sequences of the show.” Currently, Barnada is employed at Glass Entertainment Group where he is an assistant editor. His key role in this new job is to take care of all the incoming footage and sync it to the audio that was recorded separately. He also prepares scenes for other editors to work with, deals with new shows, and communicates with the field consistently.
Although most of Barnada’s experience was built up in college, his high school life played a part in preparing him for the life that was ahead of him. Besides the experience from Mr. Berger’s communications classes and his experience with NPTV, Barnada stated that his job actually requires basic subject knowledge like math and English.
“Learning story structure in English class helps a lot in film and T.V.-learning how to build a story from the ground up, and believe it or not, there is quite a bit of math involved,” stated the 24 year old Emmy winner.
Although he may not need complex algebraic equations, Barnada recalls his math skills that he has obtained from school to calculate data rates, how much space shoots are going to require on the camera, and how much space they need to buy in terms of hard drives. “There’s a little bit of everything there.”
Along with his daily classes, Barnada spent his senior year participating in a career study with Bob Gilmore and Mary Fakish, where he spent most of his day in the T.V. room and learned everything about the communications area. After learning an adequate amount from North Penn faculty, Barnada grew more knowledgeable about exactly what he wanted to do in college: post-production. Not only was he talented in camera work, but also computer work, so Barnada mixed his tech savvy qualities together to find his dream job.
Barnada recommends that students trying to figure out their passion, should try a little bit of everything. “Try things that you might not think about…build connections and learn everything you can, even if it’s not directly related to what you want to do. Learn the boring stuff too, because that is going to make all the difference when you head out in the world.”