Lessons learned through the Premiere video project

The subject of my video project initially started out as the topic for my audio story.   I wanted to explore the idea if women in their 40’s should take a break from the work force.  After conducting my interviews, I had an “a-ha” moment about the past year of my life.  The advice these experts shared taught me some valuable lessons that could have helped in my own job search.  Their words of wisdom apply to anyone who’s re-entering the work force after a break.  I abandoned my initial idea and changed the subject of my story to job hunting tips for re-entering the work force.

I chose to tell this story in the first person because so much of what I learned through shooting this story applied to my own situation.  Once I wrote it, I realized that while I had great audio and content, I would need to be creative with the video for this story

The three women I interviewed  had slightly different takes on how to go about job hunting, but they all agreed that setting expectations and being creative in the approach are keys to success.  Each transition to a new expert uses a page wipe to represent the different lessons being told in the story.  Cropping the video and utilizing different effects helped with the pacing and created visual interest.

For the lessons I opted to build simple graphics using a black background with a white font that looks similar to an old style computer font.

I added in an upbeat music bed by Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech.  I want this piece to be uplifting and inspirational and the music helps to move along the video where I’ve removed the video’s natural sound.

My camera only recorded audio on one channel so I had to create the stereo audio by copying what was on the left channel to the right channel.  I did this by going to clip>modify>audio channels.  This was much easier to do in Premiere than in Audition.

My audio levels were all over the map between my interviews and my track so I did some research on audio sweetening.  I learned how to equalize the audio through a YouTube video by ZincLabs.  Keyframes on the music bed helped me control the levels throughout the piece, allowing me to fade in and out before and after interviews.

One final note about my video.  I neglected to check the settings on my camera and shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio and not in HD or 16:9.  I had to adjust my editing and exporting to accommodate this.

The end result was longer than I expected but I am pleased with the result.  As always, I look forward the critiques from my readers and peers to see if the story should be shorter and what content I can edit.

Thanks for watching!

VIDEO	AUDIO
Montage of photos with Tristan Zoo, birthday party, beach	(VO) This was my life as a stay at home mom.
Lori typing at computer	(VO) And this is my life now.
Lori on cam	(SOT) If I had only known then what I know now….maybe it wouldn’t have taken me a year to find a job. I failed to realize job hunting has changed dramatically in the past five years since I took a break from my career to start a family. To learn what I could have done to find a job sooner, I spoke with three experts in employment
FX:  crop Jessica, Heather, Jenny	(VO) — the keeper of Portland’s hottest job board, a recruiter at a highly respected job placement agency and an experienced job coach.
FX:  slide full screen graphic – Lesson #1 – Step back to leap forward	(VO) Here are some of the lessons they shared. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take a leap forward.
FX: page wipe SOT – Jessica Fx – Jessica Williams/Prichard Communications	(SOT) I don’t think you should be punished for leaving the workforce by any means.  But like anyone who leaves the workforce you might have to start out at a lower level than you were previously.
B roll Jessica at computer Cut to screen shot of Macs List website	(VO) Jessica Williams runs the highly popular local job board Macs List.  It’s the place to go to find communications, pr and nonprofit jobs in the Portland market.
Jessica at work station sequence	(VO) Williams took a two year break from the work force, then changed careers. She advises to carefully plan, build your network of contacts and be prepared to make sacrifices along the way.
FX: Page wipe to Jenny Foss at computer FX:  Dissolve to JobJenny.com website	(VO) After years of working as a recruiter, Jenny Foss founded a job coaching company, JobJenny.com.  She often works with women like me — moms who want to return to work after taking a break to raise kids.
SOT – Jenny Fx -Jenny Foss/JobJenny.com founder	(SOT) You don’t know what you want to do next.  You’re not sure you want to work full time, you know your resume hasn’t been touched in 3, 5, 10 years.  You don’t really understand Linked In because it’s evolved in the past handful of years in a big way.
Montage of Linked In gfx, website	(VO) Foss helps candidates on a number of fronts — from creating and refreshing resumes to building LinkedIn profiles.
FX:  slide Lesson #2 – Be present on Linked In and social media	Linked In and social media are important components to any job search.  It’s a way companies search, screen and learn more about candidates before actually meeting them.
FX:  page wipe Heather Gordon	(NAT SOT) “I’m going to send you a an email because there might be another opportunity”
boly:welch reception area	(VO) Heather Gordon is a recruiter with staffing agency Boly:Welch in Portland.  She works with candidates of all ages — those who are local and people moving to the area.  In fact 40% of her clients don’t live in Portland.
SOT:  Heather FX – Heather Gordon/boly:welch recruiter	(SOT) There are a lot of organizations that use us that never advertise their positions. Which means that candidates who are looking could be really fantastic but they’ll never know about that opportunity because they don’t know the company is looking.
Dissolve to AH website application	(VO) If you don’t use a staffing agency but choose apply through a company’s website, know that large corporations use scanning software to identify keywords in resumes to weed out unqualified candidates.
FX-Wipe Lesson #3 – Write resumes for computers and humans	That means today’s resumes have to be compelling enough to get past a computer and a human.
SOT – JENNY	(SOT) You can either get mad at the reality and give up or you can figure out how this game works, and strategize accordingly. I always vote for figure out the game and strategize accordingly.
Lori on cam at desk Classifieds B-roll people walking downtown	(SOT) Fortunately my story has a happy ending.  After a year of searching — I landed a great job.  I didn’t follow all the advice of these experts, but I did a couple of things they suggest.  I was open to a job outside my area of expertise and more importantly, I adjusted my salary expectations. The biggest lesson for me in all this is there are jobs out there if you’re willing to do what it takes to find them.  Sometimes it might mean seeking professional help.  But have the confidence to stick it out and your efforts will pay off.
Fade to credits Special Thanks: Jenny Foss Heather Gordon Jessica Williams FX: dissolve to Special thanks: Tristan & Skyler for their inspiration &  support FX:  dissolve to Music: “Vivacity” By Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech) FX: dissolve to Kindergarten@ 48 Fade to black	Music full Music fades