Rebecca Wendt with camera
The beauty, power and immediacy of images on a screen caught the eye of Rebecca Wendt at a young age.
When she was 15, Wendt toured a Milwaukee television station where a friend’s father worked. She was fascinated by what she saw.
“We went into the editing room and I loved how the work was so hands-on,” the Milwaukee native remembered. “I loved that you could see the results immediately. It was like cleaning - you did something and you saw something happen right away.”
Wendt earned a liberal arts degree from Alverno College in 2010, but a career was hard to come by. She worked as a substitute teacher, at a daycare center, and as a cashier at a home improvement store. She interned at a music studio mulling the idea of earning a music degree.
“I was content, but I was after something better,” Wendt said.
A friend had taken television production classes at MATC and that rekindled Wendt’s earlier interest in the field. She enrolled and had classes with long-time instructor Glenn Riley, who retired in June 2020 after working for four decades at the Milwaukee PBS station.
While she loved her classes, Wendt said she learned almost right away that television and video production isn’t all Hollywood glitz and glamor.
“What they teach at MATC is both realistic and idealistic,” Wendt said. “It’s a lot of hard work. You figure out how to operate equipment. There is a lot of writing and a lot of planning involved. Time management and deadlines are very important and they let you learn that. You get to understand the urgency of what matters.”
She earned an associate degree in Television and Video Production in 2018. She put her skills to work by filming and live streaming MATC athletic events. Now she’s working with The 411 Live, a non-profit organization that specializes in creating media opportunities for underserved communities and operated by MATC graduate LaShondra Scott.
One of the group’s endeavors is “Suppressed By Design,” a multi-media project about voter suppression locally and nationally. Wendt is filming interviews with community members around Milwaukee, including at MATC.
“It’s been fun,” Wendt said. “We’ve been to all sorts of places and we have heard all sorts of different voices.”
Wendt is also working on video projects at her son’s elementary school and taking courses in eProduction at MATC, learning how to produce and distribute on-demand media content for the internet, smartphones and other interactive devices. The need for employees skilled in eProduction is growing as businesses strive to reach consumers via these technologies.
“I’m learning,” Wendt said. “I came into this without much experience. Today, kids grow up with this kind of technology.”
To learn more about MATC’s Television and Video Production and eProduction programs, visit https://www.matc.edu/course-catalog/creative-arts-design-media