GREG BUCHKO

 

Artist Statement

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I strive to contribute cinematic journeys and challenge character's morality, giving an audience a better understanding of the issues of morality through entertainment and the world. Films of action, adventure, horror, drama and comedy have influenced my style. A favorite film, Nolan's The Dark Knight, takes Gotham's finest heroes and challenges their morality. One becomes questioned by society and is seen as a villain, and the other becomes a villain who believes he is doing the city justice. Like Nolan, my goal is to invite audiences into new worlds and make them think about the choices being made by characters of the story. Bringing a higher awareness to the issues of morality can potentially change the actions of the world through entertainment.

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Bio - Why Am I Here?

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It's important to know your destiny and your reason of being on this Earth. Some find out rather early in life, others don't find out until late in life, and some never get to find out at all. I found my calling in junior year of high school as I wanted to create videos on YouTube, mainly entertaining videos that made you think. Why does the detective not believe the shady character's story? What led him to believe that the doctor was murdered and how? These were some of the questions from the MindTrap series I created ten years ago. However, as I did not know enough about the video industry, especially the preparedness and the business side of it, I learned the hard way of cancelling a failing production. Even so, I did not give up on my love for filming and I continued on to make other videos and eventually took a video production class in my senior year.

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I started making short films at Pittsburgh Filmmakers after gaining my associates degree at CCAC and planned to go to Robert Morris University. As I was a couple days late to transferring to the university, I decided to take a semester at the local filming school instead. I gained more experience with Final Cut Pro and Photoshop, and I created a short based on a ghost story at the school and called it Afterhours. I also created a backstory on the detective character from the MindTrap series, Shadow, and called it Birthday Presents.

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I transferred my classes from community college and Filmmakers to RMU in 2015. I gained friends and we learned more about the television and film industries and how they work. I perhaps learned the most from a friend who put all of his time and effort into learning about film, lighting and cameras through Film Riot. I gathered as much as I could from this man and we helped each other's projects through the years. Many of the short films on my site are projects through the university, but that does not demeanor them from professional videos today. In fact, a few of these films made it into the Media Arts Department's version of the Academy Awards, and some that my friends created that I helped with were shown as well.

 

As a university graduate, I look at the crossroads I am at. I see my past and where I have come from, and I turn towards my future, an unknown yet bright path towards my destiny of filmmaking. While I take these next steps to find out, I hope that you will follow me on this journey to see the world, find more characters, conquer more challenges and make more videos.

 

Let us find the stories that have not been made, hiding in the shadows, and bring them into the light and show the world.