Tell us about your time in the Communication and Media Studies Program.
As a Communications major, I had an emphasis on film production. I was the general manager of SSU-TV (now Studio Blue). There we collaborated together and made a bunch of awesome videos where we got to explore our creative side and work with really talented and fun people!
What have been some of your career highlights since graduating from SSU?
I moved down to Los Angeles where I worked in scripted television, and that was interesting working with the writers, editors and production teams on different network television shows. Afterward, I worked at NBC Studios in their marketing and promo department. That’s where I wrote, produced and edited promos for their television series.
Later on, I worked at a creative agency where I was working on video game trailers. So if you’re a fan of Halo, X-Box or PlayStation games, I worked on a bunch of titles and consoles that were part of their launch. I also worked on other tech industry commercials, promos and trailers. It was a lot of fun working with different clients and working on different projects with creative people.
How did your experiences in the COMS department help prepare you for your chosen field?
The entertainment world is full of long hours and working with different types of people, so my time at Sonoma State taught me how to interact with a lot of different people. It was also my first time finding other people who were also interested in video production. It was time for me to really connect with people who had the same passion to make videos and other creative projects that we were really excited about and loved doing.
What advice would you give to current students interested in your field of work?
If you’re really interested in film or video production, there are so many different fields you can go into. You can do pre-production, be a director, a photographer, or work in post and be an editor or effects supervisor. In every job that you do, look for what you like about it and what you don’t like, and then in the next job focus on finding those things you find the most creative and interesting to you.
If you have a passion or a drive, I’d say go for it because there will be other people who will be super passionate too, and creative collaboration is the best thing that I have found both at Sonoma State and professionally in my career. You can’t go wrong by following your passion!
What are your favorite memories, both as a student and as a video professional?
At Sonoma State, it would be working on Campus MovieFest and staying up all night to finish your film! In my professional life, working on some of my X-Box content. To help launch new consoles and games was really exciting because the (game) fans were really excited about it.