Brendan Hellweg ’14 describes the alumnus behind the new “Williston Is” video.

Odds are you’ve seen some of his work: his Slap Chop remix has over thirteen million views on YouTube and has been aired on national television. His Press Hop videos have garnered similar numbers, and he currently works with ESPN to create “this month in sports” style overviews for television. His creations have become pretty much ubiquitous on the online community. Numerous mash-ups and remixes of his videos exist and his creations routinely surpass the one-million-views marker.

Steve Porter talks to film students in the Williston film & photo lab

I hadn’t heard of him or even the Slap-Chop, mainly due to the fact that I live in a cave and only recently have started supplementing my homework time with vast amounts of time on StumbleUpon and YouTube. However, after seeing him present his work during an assembly and film class at Williston, I decided it would be a good idea to delay my assignments for an hour to see what kind of stuff he made these videos from. Some of them are pretty hilarious, and all of them are deviously clever.

Steve Porter is a Williston alumnus (Class of 1997) who started off his career as a touring DJ following his graduation. Quickly recognized for his talent, he was rated the #2 DJ in America by DJ Magazine and was signed by Fade Records. After touring for some time, he created a dance remix of a commercial for a slicing tool called the Slap Chop. It quickly went viral and his remixing career began.

Steve came to Williston to create a video titled “Williston Is,” which is produced in the same style as his other creations. Some of you might have seen students with video cameras walking about campus asking students what, exactly, Williston is all about. These quotes are coupled with a short speech by the head of school and some original beats by Steve. These quotes are then cut up into fragments and mixed together to create a music video that highlights some of the greatest parts of Williston. Watch and enjoy!