Videography
Creating an external advertisement for a new product feature
Task: Although Learning Designers typically focus on internal audiences, I was approached by Welthy’s Marketing team with a request for an externally-facing video. The goal was to promote a new product feature: Wellthy Community.
Solution: I wrote the storyboard for this video and sent it to the team for approval first, then created this video from scratch using Premiere Pro and elements I designed in Illustrator. As an added challenge, I taught myself some basic features of After Effects to design the quick desk animation at the very end of the video.
Generating excitement for LinkedIn Learning
Task: Our team was onboarding LinkedIn Learning, a professional development video learning platform, and I wanted to build excitement among our employees. I wanted to create a video that was more evergreen—and therefore reusable—than “LinkedIn Learning is coming,” or “LinkedIn Learning has dropped,” but I wanted the video to have a clear emotional pull.
Solution: I created the one-minute video below that tells a story of someone weighed down by work, family matters, COVID school closures, and home improvement issues; this fictional person might benefit from the time, space, and resources our company was about to provide in the form of a LinkedIn Learning membership.
Process: I storyboarded the video first to get the green-light from my senior leadership, then built each shot using a combination of Photoshop and screen captures. I edited the video in Premiere Pro.
Using Vyond to introduce a training topic
Problem: We needed to train our customer service representatives on a new way of storing and sharing data. To many employees, this would come as a big and stressful change. I wanted to introduce the training in a fun way by explaining the WIIFM (“what’s in it for me?”) and level-setting about the importance of this change.
Solution: I wrote a storyboard (script and visuals) and presented it to our customer service leaders before making the video, then animated the below video in Vyond. I recorded and edited the voiceover in Audition, then combined the video and audio.
Outcome: This introduction to the change teed employees up to take the training (also a video) and helped them understand the importance of the change. By the time they took the training, they were bought-into the process and had very little pushback when we changed processes.
Using video to change learner behavior
Problem: Our team noticed that a high percentage of employee issues were solved by suggesting they use a browser other than the default Internet Explorer (IE).
Solution: We communicated the browser solution in various ways: adding a note to the first page of our eLearning courses, adding language about browser choice to the course assignment email, and adding a reminder to our learning homepage. Despite these additions, we still received IE-related questions. I suggested we create a funny video and leverage our a popular internal video network, Allego, to spread the word.
Process: I decided to repurpose the popular browser meme below into a Tik-Tok style video that we could share. I asked a few colleagues to participate, wrote a script, and storyboarded the video. We filmed one person a time—changing the background color in between—so nailing the timing was essential.
Above: We shot each background one at a time, changing the paper in between. The vision was for the final version—with all four takes lined up in a row—to look like we’d shot them at the same time.
Left: I used this meme as inspiration for the video script.
Editing: I edited and color graded in Premiere Pro.
Result: We shared the final video below on our training channel. Employees thought it was funny and had positive reactions to it, and questions from employees using Internet Explorer decreased by 50%.
Screencasts with Voiceover
I regularly record screencasts with voiceover for training purposes. Here’s a sample of “Mac Tips” I recorded for my colleagues, many of whom are new(er) to using Mac products in the workplace. Some topics were reactive (e.g., I noticed a colleague didn’t know how to take a screenshot) and some were proactive (I create videos I hope will be helpful, although I haven’t seen anyone struggling with the topic yet). For the series below, I used Camtasia to record and edit.
Senior leaders speak about a revamped recognition program
This video highlighted a new employee recognition program. Two senior leaders spoke about why recognizing our colleagues is important. What was most challenging about this video was the amount of footage I had to cull through to piece together clips that made sense alongside one another. One leader was very comfortable in front of the camera and one was not at all, so the challenge with one set of footage was trimming an hour of excellent material, and the challenge with the other set was trying to pull out enough footage that told a cohesive story while still trying to make the leader look comfortable and professional in the video. The next step was weaving the two sets of clips together into a short video that made sense and communicated the message clearly. This video was challenging, but ultimately went out to many thousands of employees and set up our recognition program for a successful launch.
Multitasking Activity
This short video was part of a course about multitasking (or, more accurately, task-switching), where we asked learners to take out a paper and a pencil for a short activity.
More videos:
I made this to introduce the Learning and Development Team to the rest of the company. Featuring voiceover by everyone’s favorite IT professional to add to the fun.
A lighthearted introduction to a training about our various departments, meant to engage the learner and inform them about the training content. I’m always trying to create training that makes learners feel comfortable with whatever knowledge they’re starting with, so I’m highlighting the fact that this conversation about our business units can be confusing. To see how this training continued, watch the Company Structure eLearning video on my Instructional Design page.
An all-employee video explaining our corporate social responsibility program for new hires. Starring my dog, who’s wondering when he’ll be inducted into SAG-AFTRA.
Stop-motion animation of the Wellthy logo—with gummy bears!
Our team loves the NBC show Parks and Rec. So just for fun, a challenge. Could I emulate the Parks and Rec theme song animations? Again, starring my dog as the main talent. (Can you tell I’m a dog person?)
“Understanding new vaccine guidelines” in the COVID-19 era.
I host a podcast called No Stupid Questions. I created these short videos to introduce to the podcast for new hires. Our orientation team shows these videos to new associates and follows up with supplemental information about the podcast for anyone who’d like to listen or subscribe.
Another podcast promo for new hires.
Is it the quickest clothing change behind a tree you’ve ever seen, or is it editing? (Shot vertically for social media)
This video was inspired by two friends of mine with deep musical knowledge. Because we all have a few friends who love talking about obscure bands, right?