Jani Massey, a creative and talented Junior at Olivet Nazarene University has always had a love for music. From being the lead snare drum in high school marching band, to leading worship every Sunday at her home church, and even coming to ONU to study music, her passion is ever-present. However, she found a different passion at the end of her first semester freshmen year that has been a better fit for her creative mind.
Massey switched her major to multimedia communication with a concentration in TV/video production. She was very happy about that big change.
“I’m very glad I switched,” she said.
Although Jani has a present love for music her passion for filming and editing was sparked in high school and has continued to grow ever since. Taking a class in high school back home in Watseka Ill., called Studio 9, she was able to work with a team to cover stories throughout her high school. Jani was the editor and fell in love with creating content since then. She has been shooting video and taking pictures as a hobby and really perfecting her craft. She has a personal YouTube channel where she uploads her own work to share with others.
Jani has also taken her talents to a more professional setting by filming weddings when she is back home. Over the last summer she poured a lot of time into creating her own video business, Jani Marie Productions. She was able to film five weddings over the course of the summer of 2020 and plans on working full time this upcoming summer of 2021 to film 23 more weddings and really hone in on her video and editing skills.
Her big switch to video work has been great for her, but she has not fully left her passion for music in the past. Jani is still working with music back home at her church leading worship every Sunday. She will be graduation from ONU a full semester early and already has a job lined up.
For her first year after graduation, she will be the full-time worship leader at her home church while still doing video work on the side. Jani said that after about a year of working as the worship leader she would like to move to a larger city to pursue her dream of doing full-time video work. She hopes to find work in a bigger city, moving on to bigger things and more opportunities. As of now Jani does not have a set goal for her future career and is enjoying leaving the door open and seeing where God will take her.
Jani is a talented, creative, sunset loving individual whose passions are a huge part of her life. She continues to follow God’s plan for her and has a bright future just waiting for her.
