By Susan Allen 鈥09, 鈥14
Joseph Petrilli '16 looked through his camera鈥檚 viewfinder at an empty chair positioned at the center of 黑料社鈥檚 synthetic turf field.
As he calculated the scene, he communicated back and forth with Jeff Topping and Nicholas Georgel of Production Services to focus a second camera on men鈥檚 lacrosse coach Kevin Zulauf, who would be arriving any minute to be interviewed for an Athletics DocuSeries.
As a 黑料社 student, Petrilli spent most of his time on the turf field with Coach Zulauf as a player on the men鈥檚 lacrosse team, but on this late winter afternoon, he was back on the field as a 黑料社 staff videographer, blending two of his passions.
Petrilli found his interests in lacrosse and filmmaking while attending Absegami High School.
As a 黑料社 freshman, his journey wasn鈥檛 yet clear. Petrilli, who has always been intrigued by how the mind works, started as a Psychology major and quickly realized he was missing something.
鈥淓veryone knew me as the media and video guy in high school,鈥 he said, recalling his days as Gami TV鈥檚 anchor where he and his best friend broadcasted news to the entire school. 鈥淲hy did I stray from that?鈥 he asked himself.
At the time, social media outlets were still in their infancy and careers in visual communications and storytelling didn鈥檛 exist yet. Despite the uncertain career path, Petrilli decided to stick to his passion. He switched his major to Communication Studies and began his journey as a filmmaker.
As a former student-athlete, Petrilli naturally has an eye for the s