HILARY HOSIA
In the world of online content creation, Pijja Matauto has set the bar high: he can film, edit and produce videos in real time — a feat he demonstrated using his phone during a recent Liberal Arts exhibition at the College of Marshall Islands.
Editing on a phone is a talent only a few possess. Especially when navigating between multiple apps while shooting an event in progress.
Social media sites like TikTok and Instgram provide friendly user templates making video creation possible as long as you know how to use a phone. Pijja, on the other hand, creates contents from scratch using Capcut, Picsart and Union for editing.
Pijja began filming when he was 12-years-old in 2012. It was then that he picked up an interest to express his imagination through film. “It was my way of telling my story since I was always the silent kid,” Pijja told the Journal.
His initial creations are still accessible on his Facebook and Instagram accounts. See link: https://www.instagram.com/p/-2aZawEeLV/
Now at 22, Pijja is a first-year student at CMI, where he majors in Liberal Arts and is undergoing work study at the Nuclear Institute.
He is the son of United Church of Christ Reverend Lawson Matauto and Mohanna Matauto. His grandparents are Pijja and Glenna Matauto.
Part of his creativity spanned from all the schools he attended growing up, which, he jokingly said is a lot.
He listed the following schools: Ebeye Christian Elementary School (1-8), Kwajalein Atoll High School (freshman first semester), Guam Southern High School (second semester), Majuro Cooperative School (sophomore first semester), Majuro Baptist Christian Academy (second semester), MBCA (junior year first semester), McKinley High School in Honolulu (junior year second semester) and senior at Kwajalein Atoll High School.
During the 45-minute Liberal Arts exhibition at CMI last month, he dazzled this reporter by air-dropping a 40-second video that encompassed every aspect of the exhibition. Pijja explained that keeping his videos short ensures viewers don’t lose interest.