A love for the camera: Junior Brandon Robaina is taking to YouTube to show his talents

BY ALYSSA KHAN

Many students hope to pursue a career in videography. It’s a highly sought-after job, especially with the internet’s continued stronghold on popular culture. Having a career in this industry requires more than just the ability to take videos, though; it also requires people to be entertaining, social and willing to put their life out into the open.

CCHS junior Brandon Robaina took advantage of the 2019-2020 basketball season to begin his YouTube channel and a career on the internet. Robaina began making simple videos with his friends and had the idea to make YouTube videos. He started taking his channel– “BR Visions”– seriously when the basketball season started.

Robaina is a basketball player himself, playing on the CCHS Junior Varsity (JV) team his freshman and sophomore years. He decided on a different route this year in hopes of working on himself rather than basketball.

“I didn’t play basketball this year because I wanted to focus on my academics,” Robaina said. “My sophomore year in basketball distracted me from my academics so I wanted to take a year off to focus on my grades and do something else.” 

When the season started, Robaina knew that he wanted to remain in the basketball scene. He saw the basketball season as a perfect opportunity to further his channel. 

“I wasn’t physically on the team, but they treated me like family.”

Junior Brandon Robaina

“I wasn’t physically on the team, but they treated me like family,” Robaina said. “They all liked me recording, being around them and just having fun. I will always be a part of the basketball program in some way.”

Robaina attended most of the games, filming and taking statistics for the team through a series of game day vlogs. This not only benefited Robaina and his channel, but also the members of the team. 

“Having Brandon make these videos got more people into basketball this year,” freshman Lucas Livachof said. “Throughout the season, more and more people started coming to our games. It was also fun having Brandon around to record good team moments.”

“Having Brandon make these videos got more people into basketball this year.”

Freshman Lucas Livachof

Asides from all the fun, however, there are cons to maintaining the channel. Editing videos is one of the biggest issues for Robaina because it’s such a time-consuming task. Adding that to his schedule along with homework and attending the games, maintaining the YouTube channel became a lot of work. 

“Editing videos is a pain sometimes, but if people like my videos then I’m gonna keep making them and hopefully it takes me somewhere,” Robaina said. “It gets to be a lot sometimes but I just try to remember what it’s all for and entertain people around me.”

Robaina gained support from family and friends from the beginning of his journey. Many people shared and reposted some of his early videos to help gain attention. He knew that he couldn’t do something like this without support, and he gained so much of it as he went on. 

“When I first started YouTube, there wasn’t that much support, just from close friends and family. But once I started the game day vlogs, the support increased more and more. Then I started to hit 100, 200, 300 subscribers per week and 1,000 views per video,” Robaina said. “Now since a lot more people in school know about my videos, the support has been unreal. I wanna expand my channel outside of Cooper to different schools, and make new content for people to enjoy.” 

Robaina’s twin brother, junior Michael Robaina, believes entertaining is the right thing for his brother. He thinks that it suits his brother and has been supporting him since the beginning.

“[The] behind-the-scenes that goes into making the videos is amazing.”

Junior Michael Robaina

“I believe he’s been putting a lot of time and effort into this channel. He’s doing it not only for himself but for everyone’s entertainment and to show people he’s talented in making videos,” Michael Robaina said. “Hopefully, it pays off for him at the end since he really puts in so much time into this. [The] behind-the-scenes that goes into making the videos is amazing.”

Brandon Robaina’s interest in the field of videography has increased with his YouTube channel, and he’s even now considering pursuing a career in the field. For now, though, Robaina wants to keep posting game day vlogs and ensure the success of his current channel. 

“Outside of youtube I would definitely do something with videography, but I also like doing other things,” Brandon Robaina said. “I’ve been looking at colleges to go to for videography but I haven’t put my full eye on it since I just started my YouTube channel. I’m just gonna try and grow my channel out for right now and see how it goes from there.”

Photo by Angelique King