The Clarion-Ledger Article

Good Mornin’! Good Mornin’!

A reel-to-reel recorder was my favorite toy in my pre-teen years. I’d tape Ray Stevens songs off the radio to lip synch at recess with Robert Nelms and whoever else wanted to join in. At Christmas I got the classic Heat Meiser and Snow Meiser on tape and that became a recess favorite as well. Technology took that reel-to-reel and gave us cassettes. Late nights at our deer hunting cabin – White’s Manor – Redigo Phillips and Tommy Lister and I would sing, play guitar, drink coffee and record what we thought were funny skits and songs. I recently found one of those tapes. Yeah, there were bits and pieces of funny but not as much as I remember….lol…

I’ve always enjoyed the fruits of the Mississippi Creative Economy and am happy to promote and chat about it every chance I get. Recently, I was watching a commercial for Security Services in Cleveland and thought to myself that it had great content and was a dang skippy good advertisement. I found out the creative man behind it was Jim Burt. The film editor, writer, director and all out renaissance filmmaker was just living his dream of making creative content. The 25-year old spent time at The University of North Texas, Ole Miss and Delta State studying all the aspects of film making and editing and ended up with a degree in Communications from DSU. These days, he and business partner Cody Ballard create commercials locally and work with corporate clients creating training videos at their ColorMake Productions LLC studios.

“I shoot, write and edit them,” Burt said. “I basically take a creative approach to editing and create commercials and try to draw emotional responses out of people. Anyone can make a commercial but what’s important is how to make the message and make it desirable.”

Editing has always been his passion but he would also love to be a director.

“An editor is the one who can make a complete, creative overhaul. If a movie is flowing really good it’s because the editor made it that way,” he said. “Editors and directors usually go hand in hand. I plan to make a full feature film pretty soon and I’m working up the budget for it.”

His passion came to him early in life.

“There’s a certain flow with my films,” he said. “When I was younger, my friends and I at North Sunflower Academy would make stupid videos. Then we’d lay a music track on top of that and make it flow.”

Burt would even edit with three or more VCR’s hooked up together with a TV way before the era of computer editing. Nowadays he’s got cutting edge editing technology at his fingertips and he gathers friends to shoot and make entertaining videos ranging from bowling, being a Dallas Cowboy fan, having a dog and he’s got a gun rights video up his sleeve.

“Whenever I write something, I start from scratch and create a scenario where a lot of people can be involved. I get ideas all throughout the day and put them on my iPhone on a note pad. When I finally sit down I put them all together and write a script for it.”

Burt is raising money for his next big project – a full-length movie, so he’s out grinding commercials and making ends meet to get there. To learn more about what he’s doing, check out his Facebook page or shoot him an email to jimburt29@gmail.com or give him a call at (662) 719-1128. The Mississippi Creative Economy is alive and well in the Mississippi Delta, thanks in part to Jimmy Burt and Cody Ballard.

And I’d always ‘preciate your comments here or over at Facebook or you can tweet me @markhstowers….see yah next week!

A Rebel, a Statesmen – or Fightin’ Okra – and even a Trojan, I’m the Sunflower County farm boy with no green thumb who longed to live in the big city and got his wish and now is working his way back to the farm.

A freelance writer, middle-of-the-road-conservative and wanna-be fry cook, I look to bring native Mississippi folks and businesses to your attention through my looking glass.

There are those of us that packed up Mississippi and took it with us to new destinations and neighbors. My area code may be 248 but my heart is all about 662 with plenty of room for the 601. Heck, we’ll even saunter into the 228 from time to time.

Read more about me at www.markhstowers.com.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/life/mslife/2015/12/11/creative-economy-deltas-jim-burt/77151448/