AHML’s Teen Film fest - cinematic trailer
I created this cinematic trailer with the help of a few co-workers to get teens excited about participating in AHML’s Film Fest for 2021, which just so happens to be scheduled for Friday, August the 13th. With direction to lean into the Friday the 13th motif, I knew I wanted to incorporate camera movements and perspectives that paid homage to the movie series, while still making the content library and age appropriate. I softened the creepy overtone of the horror genre with humor and the result couldn’t have been more spot on for what we planned!
Banned Books Week 2020
For Banned Books Week in 2020, a year that left us with so much to reflect on, Arlington Heights Memorial Library wanted to create a special series that brought awareness to the topic of banned books. I came up with the idea to have staff and community members do a voice over telling heartfelt stories of their experiences with banned books, and creating graphic based videos to accompany the audio. The video above features the story of a woman who grew up in Poland under martial law, and how the works of George Orwell, works that were banned in her country, reflected her situation all too well. For this project, I created all graphics in Adobe Illustrator, and animated the project in Adobe After Effects.
Enter if you dare: Halloween Animation
This was a project done in the spirit of Halloween! At AHML, there is a traditional competition to decorate the doors of Department Heads. The Communications + Marketing department had just gotten a new touch-screen device that would be used to help customers navigate the library, and to show it off, instead of decorating our manager’s door with physical materials, I created this animation from an illustration that my co-worker made.
Tips and tricks for filming higher quality videos at home
The library is a beacon for those in its community that utilize its resources, and to have programming and services become so suddenly inaccessible due to the pandemic made us hit the ground running thinking of ways to offer as much as we could virtually. This led to offering programs via Zoom as well as pre-recorded programming, which forced librarians who may not have had prior video knowledge or equipment to become content creators, and they had a lot of questions. Being the point video person at AHML, I wanted to meet my peers where they were and help them to improve the videos they were making from home with the equipment they had available to them, so I created this short tips and tricks video to give them a bit of guidance, and show what is possible with just the basics.
Meet the Makers
I created this teaser for a video program series hosted by the Arlington Heights Memorial Library. The series featured a different artist each week in the month of December, where the artist would give a presentation on what they do, and how they are active in the creative community followed by a demonstration and Q+A where program attendees could find out more about the artist or their process. I wanted to create a teaser that showcased the artist, their work, the fact that they were local to Chicago, and an example of their vibe and process. File organization was extremely important for this project, as I had to gather a variety of media to edit this project together. The entire video was edited in Premiere Pro.
The Arlington Heights Memorial Library Book Mobile
The Arlington Heights Memorial Library Book Mobile is an integral part of carrying the library’s services out into the community. To spread awareness of the bookmobile and all it can do, I created a mini documentary outlining everything it offers to AHML’s patrons. I went out with the bookmobile’s staff over the summer of 2019 on their routes as well as special events to capture footage of the vehicle in different settings. Everything was filmed on a Canon and Nikon DSLR, using 50mm 1.4 and 24-105mm lenses, either handheld or on a shoulder rig. An on-camera RODE shotgun mic captured audio on the bus, and a RODE lav mic was used to capture audio for the voice over interview.
HARRY POTTER BOOK NIGHT
One of my tasks as the main videographer at AHML is filming events and making recap videos of them. Harry Potter Book Night is not surprisingly one of our most well-attended events, and from Quidditch to Potions there is never a dull moment in any corner of the library that night.
For this video, I animated the intro in After Effects, and assembled the clips in Adobe Premiere.
AHML’s Artist in Residence Series: Magician Jeanette Andrews
For this introduction video to 2020’s Artist in Residence series, I communicated with Jeanette via e-mail and zoom to give her direction on the delivery of her dialogue, which she filmed in her home studio. I then took her footage and intertwined it with B-Roll she provided of her performing. I also came up with custom icons for each theme category she mentions, which I designed in Illustrator and animated in After Effects, as well as designed and animated the lower thirds throughout the video.
The Million Reasons - Dizzy Music Video
The Million Reasons is a true rock band from Chicago. I directed, shot, and edited this music video for them in the Spring of 2018.
THE JADES
The Jades are an bluesy folk duo made up of Katie Krenning and Kathleen Lieffers. I created this video with them as a means of promotion to give their audience a sense of who they are and an introduction to what they sound like, while also promoting a couple shows they have coming up for this Summer.
C2E2
While working at the Des Plaines Public Library, I was sent to C2E2 (Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo) to capture my experience for a post on the library's blog. The blog highlights books in the library that patron's can reference to help them create their own cosplays, which is a big part of convention culture, and a focus in the video!
3MA STUDIOS
3 Monkeys and Aardvark Studios is as quirky as it sounds. Located in Schaumburg, Illinois, this small design agency shakes up the suburbs in a big way.
THERMOSAFE WEB BANNER
Thermosafe is a leader in Temperature Controlled Packaging. Using Adobe After Effects, I created an animated web banner for them to give their audience a glance at their process. The icons for each step of their process were provided to me, and it was my job to find an interesting way to bring each one to life through animation.
ANIMATED WEB AD
Thermosafe commissioned another animated gif to serve as an ad for their website and an e-mail footer. This particular ad shows off the different transport products that they offer in a sleek template style, where color is used to emphasize the difference in products, and a traveling line not only directs the viewer's eyes to read the message, but prevents the piece from becoming static and visually uninteresting.