A man lies dead on the floor. He has just been hit by lightning. His head has exploded into a million little pieces. His brain is nothing but mush.
Sound neat? Well, Arthur Tagakchyan (’10) puts his skill to work in order to make graphic scenes like these.
From the age of 13, he has been working on special effects or as he calls it, “video manipulation.” His brother, Grigor Tagakchyan, also made student films in college, an interest which eventually “rubbed off” on Tagakchyan.
“He has a unique way of thinking and he is very creative,” Grigor said.
After watching, “Gary’s Game,” a film by Pixar, Tagakchyan “fell in love with animation” and was “pushed to find the middle ground between live action and totally fake.”
According to Tagakchyan, he has always been a “technical guy who tries to figure out how things work.” The whole concept of making something from nothing amazed him.
In 10th grade, he began collaborating with friend Aramais Airapetian (’10), who creates and directs his own films as well. Together, they established a production company called Colossal Productions.
They submitted their film, “Re-Do,” to the annual Film Festival. The movie won in the following categories: Best Edit, Best Sound, Best Special Effects, and Best Overall Movie.
But aside from this, they “just make movies for fun” and for their own experience.
Tagakchyan does all of his editing on the computer, and prefers Windows over Mac because it is “easier to customize.” He purchases the computer parts separately and assembles them together himself.
“Arthur is an awesome special effects editor,” Airapetian said. “He takes his time with it and even if the effect isn’t long, he’ll perfect it to the last detail so that no one can point out a mistake.”
In addition to working with Airapetian, Tagakchyan also edits concert shows, such as GHS’s “Traveler” that he and his brother worked on a few years ago. He helped make posters and added the finishing touches to the event DVD.
Lately, he has been able to create more challenging effects such as someone getting hit by a car and having someone’s head blown off by lightning.
“We do our best to let him be aware of and explore other fields, but we are not discouraging what he is doing now at all,” father Korioun Tagakchyan said.
His brother also helps him financially such as providing equipment and giving suggestions on how to improve his work.
Tagakchyan hopes to eventually work on a major motion picture or in the media industry. He recently committed to UC San Diego to study computer engineering.
“[Technology] is a way for me to create my own form of [entertainment],” Tagakchyan stated.
