Humans love moving pictures. They are made to be visually stimulating, so the audience will want to keep watching, buy the product, or visit the place. Everything from GIFs to Super Bowl commercials are made to gain a particular reaction from an audience. The same can be said for the videos and ads made for Point Pleasant. BrandJRNY's target audience is primarily history buffs and folklore fans, but we also need to tell the story of our branding process.
This is where I come in. As the BrandJRNY videographer, I have the opportunity to document the story of BrandJRNY, its members, and its impact on the communities it works with. Along with filming the work of BrandJRNY, I also created a series of brand launch and recap videos that were released on social media.
I would describe my enjoyment of filming and editing video as a happy accident. At the beginning of my college career, I wanted nothing to do with video or editing it. I focused on photography and was fairly sure that video wasn't that important for my career path. It wasn't until the fall semester of my sophomore year when I picked up a camera to film a video for another course assignment instead of a photoshoot. I faced my fear of editing in the Adobe Premiere Pro video editing software and created a social video for a restaurant in my hometown that I was genuinely proud of. It was during that experience when I realized video was something I could be good at with practice. From there, I excelled in my video-editing courses and became more comfortable with the editing process.
At the beginning of this semester, I wanted to strengthen these newfound skills in video. When the time came to apply for the brand story-telling team's positions, I went out of my comfort zone and applied for the BrandJRNY videographer role. To have been accepted for this position, I knew that my abilities were trusted, and my determination to create content that our entire team could be proud of was evident.
The brand launch video that was uploaded to Point Pleasant's social media platforms was my biggest job so far, but also the most rewarding. That mental image of a person hunched over a computer for hours in a dark room to edit content? It's not too far off. It took a good 5-6 hours to edit the brand launch video. Not to mention Professor Smith and I finished it in one session with barely any breaks and only a pack of peanut M&Ms to keep us energized.
Not many people realize how much goes into the creative process, such as cutting up audio, timing video sequences, placing animations, cleaning up transitions, and even picking the right music to fit the mood. We compiled tons of videos together that we believe showed the true essence and uniqueness of Point Pleasant. We kept in mind the target audience for the video — people in the community. We did all that for a 3-minute video.
I don't think I breathed the entire time the video was being projected to the Point Pleasant community during the brand launch. It was only when the screen went black when I let out a huge satisfactory sigh of relief. A wave of pride and happiness washed over me, but I was quick to compose myself and focus back in on my next big video release for BrandJRNY, the recap video.
The cycle begins again.
My name is Sara Brinsfield and I am the BrandJRNY videographer. On the rare occasion I have free time, you can find me listening to music, sleeping, learning new languages, or trying to teach Professor Smith how to renegade, but not all in that order. Follow me through our journey– @smpllbk.