Albert Lea man made ‘Best Job’ video

Published 9:07 am Thursday, March 12, 2009

Hollandale’s Greg Reynen, a physical education teacher in Singapore, isn’t the only local connection to the world-famous “Best Job in the World” contest.

Albert Lea video producer Matt Levorson also entered the contest. He was among the nearly 35,000 people worldwide who entered the contest to be a caretaker of the islands of the Great Barrier Reef. The Australian contest is run by Tourism Queensland.

Levorson saw the contest through Yahoo and the ABC show “Good Morning America.” He researched it further, watched the www.islandreefjob.com Web site, then sent in his entry one week before the contest closed in late February.

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In his video, Levorson describes how his skills with video, writing and photography, his love of adventure and positive attitude would make him an ideal candidate. The clips show him editing video, wakeboarding and swimming with dolphins. Then it goes through a series of photos as he narrates:

“Some of the adventures I do now are hiking, snowboarding, wakeboarding, barefooting, waterski jumping, surfing, scuba diving, skydiving, traveling and much, much more.”

Reynen made the short list of 50 people, announced March 2.

Levorson didn’t make it, but he said he had fun entering. He said many of the finalists had help in making their videos, such as someone holding the camera, but in his he wanted to show he could do all the video work himself — which he thought better fit the job’s description.

It is a six-month position with flexible hours, living on Hamilton Island. A key responsibility is to explore the islands and report on the adventures to Tourism Queensland headquarters in Brisbane via blogs, photos, videos and interviews. Other duties are feeding fish, cleaning a pool and collecting mail. The pay is 150,000 Australian dollars for the six-month contract, starting July 1.

People can go to the site and vote on the 50 finalists. Tourism Queensland will pick 10 of them, and the voters pick one. The 11 will be flown to Queensland for interviews.

Levorson, who owns Matt Levorson Productions in Albert Lea, said some videos at the site are cool but others could be better. He wonders if some candidates can do the media work the job requires.

Of the 50, Levorson will vote for Mark, a film producer from California who Levorson said did well in front of the camera and seemed like “a genuine person.”

About Tim Engstrom

Tim Engstrom is the editor of the Albert Lea Tribune. He resides in Albert Lea with his wife, two sons and dog.

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