The red dot turns on, the lighting is set, and his vision comes to life from behind the camera. He sees everything fall into place in each frame. The composition is what makes it special for him. Thus, his story begins.

Chapel Hill graduate, Nick Payne is attending UT Austin’s Moody School of Communications for their Radio/Television/Film program in hopes of spending his last semester of college in Los Angeles to pursue a career in film making. He is a two-time returning counselor for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards organization, after being nominated his junior year as the class representative. RYLA is a leadership program for elite students to become effective future leaders.

“The one thing I can say, for sure, that got me here is just passion,” Payne said, “It’s a passion for making movies and a passion for working with like-minded, creative, talented people.”

Nick took part in the UIL one act play competition and was part of KBTV since freshman year.

“He reminded me that there really are people out there, still, who love to do film,” KBTV teacher Alexandria Smith said. “He was a good kid in general… hard working, smart, driven, creative, [and] passionate.”

Nick graduated in the top 7% of his class. He was also a member in the National Honors Society and the National Technical Honors Society.

“I love working with people and getting to sit down and think out the process of how we’ll get what we’ve written on camera in the most efficient, creative, eye-catching way,” said Payne. “When all the performances, sound, image, and the tone comes together, it’s one of the best feelings in the world to know that you’ve created something.”

Nick is currently working on writing two different screenplays for dream projects. One is a short film about blues singer, Robert Johnson and the other is an adapted screenplay of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”.