In a series I am creatively calling, “Meet Team Tellwell”, I sit down with Tellwell’s brightest minds to chat about who they are, what makes them tick, and what gets them excited about coming to work every day.
In this article, I chatted with our resident editing wizard, Matt, to learn more about who he is outside of work, his hobbies and interests, and his love for compost. Check it out!
You’ve taken a few trips around the sun with us here at Tellwell – but it’s time to tell us about yourself!
I was born in St. Cloud MN. Second of four siblings – one older brothers and two younger sisters. I’ve had a love for nature, animals, music, and story telling from a young age. Current hobbies I’m finding myself doing quite a bit are bread baking, photography, watching films/TV, and gardening/house plants. I also enjoy disc golf, biking, reading, birding, hiking, camping, to name a few.
Growing up we spent a lot of time biking around the area, making tree-forts, exploring the woods along the banks for the Sauk and Mississippi river, and making silly little videos on a friends DV camcorder. Pre-2000 I don’t even think we had a computer or even realized you could edit videos, so we’d just record the sequences in camera. If we needed a different take we’d just rewind and record over the previous take. Once we were done, we’d just gather around the camera and watch what we’d created amongst ourselves. Next time we wanted to create another video, we’d just record over the tape again. Eventually my brother and close friend started making videos for a youtube channel, which is where I would say I started to learn the fundamentals of film making.
Music was a big thing for me growing up. I played saxophone starting in the 4th grade and started playing bassoon in the 8th grade. In the 9th grade I started playing in the St. Cloud State University jazz ensembles (big band and combo) as well as their wind ensemble. After I graduated from high-school in, I attended St. Cloud State University (SCSU). I continued in music throughout my time at SCSU – staying involved in jazz ensembles and the orchestra pretty consistently. I originally started as a jazz performance major, but ultimately switched to biomedical science with the intent of becoming a veterinarian. I graduated suma cum laude in 2014, but decided against continuing on to veterinary school.
Instead I decided to work some kind of full time job and start pursuing film making on the side with the hopes of eventually sustaining myself through being a solo film maker. I ended up working as a materials science lab technician at Marvin Windows and door for about 6 years doing sporadic video work throughout that time.
During that time I met my wife (Hannah) and eventually we got married! We currently live in North Fargo! Aside from our house plants, it’s just the two of us right now, but we love to babysit out niece and nephews that are in town.
Eventually I saw an opportunity to work at Tellwell, I applied, and got the job!
If a stranger approached you and asked you to describe yourself… what would you say?
Professionally I’m a video creator. Sort of a video generalist, I would say, meaning I perform most of the film making functions that would traditionally fall to a series of people – i.e. camera operation, sound recording, lighting, editing, sound mixing, color grading, etc.
But aside from all that, I would describe myself as a curious person who likes to learn and think critically about things. I like to get good at the things I do, so if it’s not something I can be good at I typically move on, haha.
As you spend time here at Tellwell, what is your big goal?
Let’s chat more about you outside of work. What are some things that make you happy?
I love some of the simple quiet things. I like spending time with Hannah (my wife). I like enjoying a cup of good coffee as the morning sun filters through an east facing window while listening to an album on vinyl. I like having a conversation with a friend that yields some new thought or insight about the world, a topic, or that friend. I like watching things grow because of conditions I created for them – whether that be plants in my garden or a loaf of bread in the oven. Also, I like putting my phone into airplane mode, lol.
We love our community here in Fargo, what are some things you do to get involved in the area?
We like to donate to charities, especially ones that help with food insecurity. I make sure I return my cart when I’m done shopping and I try to always use my blinker when changing lanes.
What is your favorite place in Fargo right now?
I’ll give you a couple categories that come to mind and my favorites in each:
Favorite restaurant: Bernbaums
Favorite park: M.B. Johnson (Moorhead I know)
Favorite stores: it’s a tie between Bakers Garden and Gift or Orange Records
Not a place per se, but shoutout to 95.9 KRFF which would be my favorite radio station in town. Their DJ’s have introduced me to a lot of new music since moving to town.
Also the Fargo Theater is my favorite place to watch a film – it’s a cathedral to cinema right here in Fargo!
It might be a weird question, but I think food can bring back a lot of memories for people. What’s the most memorable food experience you’ve ever had?
Do you have a weird thing you’re passionate about?
What’s some music you’ve been listening to lately?
Right now I’m really into King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, particularly I’m enjoying their newish album “Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava” But I also keep coming back to: “Helplessness Blues” by Fleetfoxes and “Guero” by Beck
Do you have a favorite or memorable vacation or trip you’ve taken?
I really like Yellowstone National Park – just in general – but things like the Grand Prismatic spring make you feel like you’re on another planet.
