Senior Spotlight: Matt Hickman
Well-known USD videographer tells The USD Vista how he got his start in filming
Lizzy Jennings / A&C Editor / The USD Vista
Known throughout the USD community for his stunning Instagram and popular travel YouTube videos, senior Matt Hickman has been steadily growing and improving his videography skills. With videos that feature his time on Semester at Sea as well as other USD students and San Diego itself, this senior has been able to capture his experience as an undergrad through his videos.
Originally from Portland, Oregon, Hickman is a Computer Science major. Though he enjoys school and his major, his real passion for videography arose his first year.
“I got a camera for high school graduation but didn’t really use it until the end of my freshman year,” Hickman said. “I was getting bored at school and wanted to pick up a new hobby, so I started messing around and taking some photos.”
He cites his friendship with another senior student, Dane Mui, as the real start for this passion. Hickman began taking primarily photos for about a year, focusing on developing his knowledge of photography with help from Mui.
As time went on, Hickman started seeing more and more travel videos online that drew his attention. With a few trips on the horizon, Hickman decided that videography, especially travel videos, were going to be the next step in developing this passion he had acquired. It was through filming these trips that he realized how this hobby had gone from a fun pastime to something he truly loved.
“Each video is a chance for you to wow the audience, to tell a story, and to make them feel something,” Hickman said.
Hickman also says he enjoys shooting people in his videos, rather than just landscapes or objects, as he finds them more interesting. He has been able to travel to some amazing locations to record: his favorite place to film so far has been either Bali or the Bahamas.
Photo courtesy of Matt Hickman
Now, in his last year at USD, when he’s not studying, he works on developing his company, entitled Flickman Media. Having come a far way from his first year, Hickman has now transformed his hobby into a lucrative side job. Last summer he began networking — reaching out to local companies and individuals to make promotional videos and build his portfolio. Over time, this turned into paid work which is how Flickman Media came into existence.
“Today I still create videos for clients while going to school and will go dump all my energy into that as soon as I graduate,” Hickman said. “My dream is to build up Flickman Media and create commercials and narrative pieces for the rest of my life.”
On this journey to transform his hobby into a post-graduation career, Hickman, along with two other USD seniors Karl Rassmuesen and Wyatt Ernst, entered the Red Bull Can You Make It competition. In this competition, teams of college students across the world make application videos explaining how they would be able to travel around the world using only Red Bull as currency. Hickman and his team were consistently one of the top U.S. teams, and last Monday they received an email informing them that they had been selected by a panel of judges to represent the U.S in the competition. Though the competition was originally scheduled for this summer, it has been postponed until September due to the coronavirus concerns. This hasn’t stopped Hickman and his team, however.
“We are still planning on going over there and bringing back a victory,” Hickman said. “It has been an awesome experience so far and we can’t wait to see what happens next.”