About
So, I'm Steven Zurita. I'm a Texas born and raised filmmaker. I've always had an attraction to a camera's ability to capture a moment. I soon learned I could stage my own moments in front of the camera to tell stories. I'd soon learn those were scenes. By the time I was thirteen my father gave me his video camera to hone my skill. I made lots of movies with my family and friends for awhile using that old Hi8 camera.
When I was 14 I decided to change my movie making hobby into a career. I was watching the original Star Wars on videotape for the first time in almost ten years. I can still remember the specific moment I made that career decision. It was while Luke Skywalker raced down the Death Star Trench, with 3 TIE Fighters on his tail. I had seen Empire Strikes Back a ton of times a couple years before, so I obviously knew who survived the movie. But I still found myself literally on the edge of my seat, fearing for the hero's life while Vader shot at Luke and Han swooped in for the last second rescue. I wanted to make a living out of evoking those kinds of emotional reactions in people.
So throughout high school I kept making movies with friends. I soon found myself the president of the film club. With my newly discovered obsession of Star Wars I had an urge to be able to recreate lightsaber and laser fights on screen. I picked up some tutorials on how to do just that in Photoshop, and while I gained a reputation for being 'that lightsaber guy' in school, it started me down a path for producing stunning motion graphics and visual effects.
Then came college! I studied film for four years at The University of Texas at Austin and graduated in 2012 with a Bachelors of Science degree in Radio-Television-Film. I learned most of what I know at Texas Student Television, the nation's only digitally licensed, student run tv station! If I sound proud about the station and my time there, it's because I am! I showed up as a basic volunteer in Fall of 2008 and signed up for as many shows as I could! I did about five that year. By my second semester of college, I was already the producer of a show, Videogame Hour Live. It's exactly what it sounds like, an hour long show about reviewing and playing video games. I pretty much sum up my history with that show in my last ever review I did for them, in which instead of reviewing a game, I reviewed my time working on VGHL:
In addition to VGHL, I was an updates producer for KVR News. By my junior year I had enough funny stories built up from my time producing shows that I decided to create a brand new one, Combo Breakers. It was kind of like the 30 Rock of VGHL. It went on to win an award for the Best Video Drama from the South Central Broadcasting Society in 2011. That year I also won an award for Best Promo at College Broadcasters Inc. 2011 was a good year! Besides awards, it was a good year because I was to be elected the station manager of my beloved tv station. In addition to producing shows, over the years I had held a number of staff positions at the station, working up until I applied for said position and the TSM Board elected me to run the entire station for a year. That term ended in May of 2012. I did way too many things in that year to list out here, but it was a fun time and I learned a lot of skills and lessons about leadership that I'll be applying to my career.
And that's where I'm at today. So whether you're a curious viewer or potential employer, I hope you enjoy browsing through my work featured on this site. I'll be updating it on a regular basis with my work.
