Bryce Johnston

Bryce Johnston was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana into a family of producers, and was thus essentially set up for a life full of film.  He moved all around the south at a young age until his family decided to stay put in Salt Lake City.  Growing up, Johnston had always been exposed to film, and this was especially due to his mom, Jamie Johnston.

His mother majored in film in college, and ended up producing a documentary.  She also worked at various news stations, a radio station, and even helped out with the Sundance Film Festival.  Because of this, Johnston’s mother had various connections in the film world, allowing him to successfully and efficiently pursue any film dreams he had.

“She kind of pushed me.  But she always inspired me to do what I want to,” Johnston said, “She wasn’t saying ‘You have to do film.’”

A combination of his mother’s love for film and the various classes offered at Highland relating to cameras is ultimately what allowed Johnston’s love for film to surface and grow into a passion.

“Freshman year I had TV productions, and then I had photography sophomore year,” Johnston said, “so I got more into cameras and stuff, and from that more into film.”

It took more than simply a commitment to taking film classes at Highland for Johnston to get to this point.  As well as being happy and willing to take production classes in school, Johnston committed to putting time into his passion after school, in the form of internships and jobs.

Johnston has done all kinds of work across the film industry.  He has a wide spectrum of experience, ranging from working on a film set to audio at a church to having an internship on a TV set.  In fact, while working as a paid intern at KPDR, Johnston work with all different aspects of production.  He took care of maintaining broadcasting equipment, editing the show, and operating cameras.  Each and every one of these experiences adds something to the abundance of knowledge Johnston has regarding CTE subjects, particularly those relating to film.

Johnston is also very committed to regular school studies on top of the film he puts so much focus into.  He went to Uintah elementary school then Clayton middle school.  In junior high, Johnston was part of the magnet E.L.P. program, and he is currently pushing himself at Highland by taking part in the IB program.

“It was kind of instilled by my parents to always get good grades and work hard,” Johnston said “It may sound a little pretentious to say, but I guess I was always a little ahead of the curve in elementary school.”

Johnston and his parents have always had very high expectations, expectations that resulted in unbelievably impressive accomplishments already.  But it happens to be these exact high standards that result in Johnston’s biggest difficulty in producing film.

“Whenever I start writing an idea and getting it concrete, I get half-way through and just hate it and throw it away,” Johnston said.  “The hardest thing for me in producing a film is just trying to push myself past my own mental judgements and just saying ‘this is the best product I can make’ instead of ‘this is terrible.’”

With himself as his own biggest critic, it is fair to believe that Johnston has the capability to make it far in the film industry, and that just so happens to be what his ultimate goal is.

“When I’m older I’ll probably be a filmmaker, more specifically a cinematographer,” Johnston said. “It kind of meshes the artistic side and the technical side.”

As well as working with cameras, Johnston has many other hobbies.  He listens to a lot of music and loves the outdoors.  But, although he adores hiking and the arts, film is Johnston’s number one passion, and he filters the majority of his energy into that.  Without all the effort he puts into his film, he would be unable to create work so high quality that it can set him up for a future of film.