• Editor’s Note: This story by Christopher Cudworth was originally posted on the BataviaPlus “Voices” and is reposted here with the permission of the city of Batavia.

A Michigan State University student’s eye-popping videos of his hometown of Batavia and elsewhere are pushing boundaries, drawing commercial interest and inspiring industry acclaim.

Dean Vernon, a Batavia High School graduate now attending Michigan State University in East Lansing, recently posted his experimental video projects titled “Views From Our Town,” which chronicle some of the best aspects of Batavia.

His video style is fluid yet impactful, informative yet inspiring. This past summer, he produced videos for several local organizations including Batavia United Way, Tri-City Health and Batavia Mainstreet.

In the field, Vernon uses drones to achieve striking new perspectives on familiar places. This is one of the methods that seems to garner such enthusiasm from residents of Batavia. Soaring over the Depot Pond or simply capturing a favorite bike trail from high above brings deeper significance to the beauty and accessibility of such places.

After shooting the drone video, Vernon goes to work in the studio using Adobe Premiere and an effects software to produce the attention-focusing zooms and pans that mark his work.

“The most important thing to me is inspiring others,” he said. “I’m largely self-taught after learning the basics of video in a class at Batavia High School. “I learned the stuff like video composition and basic editing from Scott Larson. From there I’ve kept on learning by doing.”

He now majors in videography and photography at Michigan State. Some of his lighter work includes takes from travel and other near-term adventures. His goal is to get work as a videographer for musicians and other creative clients. For now, it is Vernon’s own creativity that is attracting support and interest in his home town and beyond.