A Summer Job in Media by Merci Warren

Written by Jr. Media Technician, Merci Warren

This summer, Workwell was very privileged to have a media team working to capture (through photography, videography, and writing) the many things happening here at Workwell and Camp Skillz. The media team worked on many projects this summer which included producing videos and pictures for WorkWell and Camp Skillz, taking inventory of products for summer activities, creating an operations manual, and doing some journalistic work.

Employees worked with Mid States Sports Leagues, providing them with a photographic inventory of their equipment.

Servando Nava, the media team’s near-peer supervisor taught them about the exposure triangle: lighting, angles, and editing. These skills are very important to producing quality media, and the team improved so much in this area over the course of the summer. The team also learned the valuable skill of how to conduct an interview. They learned how to formulate informed questions to ask the interviewees, and in turn use their videography skills to make an insightful video based upon the interviewee’s responses.

Merci Warren Interviewed Austin Milliron as a part of her first Instagram video highlighting the WorkWell basketball team.

Servando expressed his thoughts about the summer: “I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to shape the youths’ character while also teaching them media. I had an interaction with one employee about the distracting impact of his goofy demeanor on the team, and that he needed to be focused for the benefit of his coworkers on the projects they were doing. He took the conversation to heart and began to contribute while still bringing his personality to his work. For another employee, he could take pride because despite his lack of media experience and need for quite a bit of help to edit his first video, his last video of the summer required just basic edits from his media managers.”

During week one of WorkWell, Servando Nava taught the media team how to utilize their new equipment. Though intimidated at first, they gained confidence and learned quicky!

Employees Merci Warren and Logan Rast worked together on several projects throughout the summer. One of these projects was to produce a video highlighting WorkWell’s basketball group. Merci’s skills in videography and Logan's skills in editing allowed them to produce a video that was posted on WorkWell’s Instagram account. Logan shared his experience: “I really liked learning how to edit videos well.” Merci said, “I loved being able to learn about Final Cut Pro, and how to use the program to edit and make great videos!”

Employee Logan Rast entered the WorkWell program with no experience in photography and now has learned how to operate a professional camera!

Jack Jefferies (another media team employee) has been doing photography for almost a year, so he had some experience when WorkWell began. He really enjoyed being able to do photography this summer and to use his skills to benefit others. Jack shared what he enjoyed most this summer: “I really liked the memories I created with my friends and the memories I captured with the photos I took.”

The media team had a productive summer creating useful content, and learning through the process. Most of all, they learned how to work together as a team, which is a very important skill for future careers. Servando stated, “I was really amazed by their ability to step up and learn the skills of media in the short time they were here.”

The 2018 WorkWell Media Team!