Produced Work

I work with clients in the non-profit, healthcare, finance, and higher education space. Below are a few projects I produced and continue to post the projects when able to. 

The Rollercoaster

I am currently working on a self-produced documentary called The Rollercoaster, about a college student undergoing his second cochlear implant surgery and his journey to hearing over the last few years. It combines other characters, such as family members, clinicians, and others who have received cochlear implants, along with their opinions surrounding this surgery. Being that this is a personal project, I am a one-woman band, so I am in charge of everything from pre-production to post-production. I scripted the film, created the budget, timeline, filming, editing, and color correction. In time, I will hire someone to master the color and audio to make this piece sound and look its best. 

How I structured the timeline was based around milestones or events for the main character, budget, and employment. Filming for one year, later on expanding to multiple years, I had time to plan when I would film, save money to help grow my budget, and could give my employer enough notice if I needed to take time off. The main positive was that I had time to ensure the edit was on track with the story and could make tweaks, if necessary. The roadblocks I encountered was primarily COVID, when it came time to film with additional characters for the film. I, also, had to account for the 10 hour drive to Ohio when making my film schedule for filming and taking off of work. 

Where I could have improved would be in the equipment department, specifically using a gimbal or steadicam. It would make the visuals look more upscale. Another way I could have improved would have been a narrowed down interview questions, so that I spent less time getting to the heart of the story and not sifting through transcriptions as long as I did. 

Overall, for the size of this project, I have improved my organizational skills and filename convention to find any clip, document, or soundbite quickly while editing. I am on track to have this project finished by the end of 2024.

NPPA Multimedia Immersion Workshop

In 2019, I was a part of the NPPA Multimedia Immersion Workshops media team at Syracuse University and was responsible for creating a recap video of the week to also be used as promotion for next year’s workshop. My team consisted of two other people and together we decided who’s skilled best fit where/each roll. I was the producer and editor, while the other two filmed and recorded audio. I was lucky to have a good team that knew how to help speed things along in the editing process, were skilled cameramen, and overall great collaborators. They would go out and film with attendees, while I would start to make selects and build the timeline.  

We quickly realized the “welcome speech”, which was all about transformation and how stories are a transformation process, was the best way to drive the piece and it is an evergreen statement. However, the client did not like that this would be the only audio used and that this speaker is used frequently. We did our best to explain our reasoning, and ultimately saw it through our lens and agreed. One thing I like to do when clients and I aren’t on the same page yet is a few things. I create another version or a shorter cut, if I have the time, with their idea to at least show I tried their idea or storyboard or talk out their idea to see how we can meet in the middle and blend the two ideas. Working with the client is just like working with my team, you have to collaborate and be open to ideas to make the piece look as good as possible and drive home the message to the intended audience. 

Seeing as though this workshop was only a few days, I think my team and I did the best we could. If we had more time, we could have experimented with more other soundbites or polished the final sequence as a whole a bit more. Overall, I am proud of the work and my main takeaway was how to communicate better with a client who we aren’t seeing eye to eye with and ways to find a solution.