As Craig Kilborn of ESPN would say, Amanda Aburn loves the video camera, and the video camera loves her right back.
But she enjoys being behind the lens, rather than in front of it.
"Every time someone brings one over to my house, I always ask if I can use it to tape all kinds of stuff," said the 11-year-old girl.
Amanda's fascination with the video camera has paid off. Last month, the George Fox Middle School sixth-grader won third place at the county media festival for her video short on nutritious eating.
The 75-second video is called "A Nutritious Lunch" and it stars Amanda, who is sitting at a table with her bag lunch.
When Amanda gets up from the table and walks away, a frosted apple pie, a cupcake and a lollipop hop out of the brown paper bag and walk off the table.
The "junk foods" are replaced by an apple, a cheese sandwich and a carton of milk.
When Amanda returns to the table, she is surprised to find her "new" lunch.
Amanda said she got the idea for making the video last January after she watched a Claymation film.
"That interested me," Amanda said. "I'm a person who likes to create things and make things."
So she started making her own video, making a storyboard with scene descriptions and actual drawings. She took two weeks to tape and made final revisions at the end of March.
Although she worked on the video for four days a week for three months, Amanda said she didn't mind all the effort.
"It was hard, but it was OK," Amanda said. "If you go and look at it, it makes a statement."
"It's about getting nutritious food in your system because some nutritious food can actually [taste] good," she continued. "You can't always eat cupcakes and apple pies and lollipops."
Amanda's mother, Denise, said her daughter became hooked after she and her husband, James, bought their first video camera five years ago. Amanda, who has a 6-year-old brother, Dustin, also likes to draw and take photographs.
Amanda said she never expected her video to be recognized by the judges.
"I didn't think much of it," said Amanda, who received a certificate when she was told about her success three weeks ago. "When I heard I took third place, I was in shock."
Surprisingly, she isn't thinking about becoming a filmmaker.
"When I grow up, I want to be a child psychiatrist," Amanda said. "But videotaping is a good hobby."
Pub Date: 5/03/96
