By Wyatt Janosz
Rising Stars is a series of thoughts, reflections and perspectives by the interns at Devine + Partners. Wyatt Janosz is a rising senior at Temple University studying Media Studies and Production.
I’ve edited videos since my freshman year of high school, and my interest in editing has only increased as I’ve progressed. Initially, I would make personal projects and projects for school. The difference between the two often amounted to the video topics. How they were filmed and edited was consistent. There was no name to my style, yet it was still my own.
When I joined Devine + Partners, I knew I would be working on various videos for different clients. One of my biggest “struggles” working here has been adapting my editing style to each client. I pay close attention to the cuts I’m making, and with the text I’m inserting on the screen: perfect grammar on captions with emojis, text stroke, text font, text background, where the text goes. All of these change depending on the client. It can get confusing and intimidating when I keep getting hit with edits.
But here is what I’ve learned:
I usually research past videos similar to the one I am making to figure out exactly what I have to do. It feels like an art within an art, to mold my creative style to clients.
In a sense, the entire agency has to do that, not just those shooting or editing video. I asked my coworkers how they handle working with different clients.
D+P’s CEO, Jay Devine, said that staying organized is crucial, as it also keeps track of his time. He prioritizes the calendar on Outlook and knows that he can fall back on his inbox if he needs. He said that his inbox leaves a “trail” so he knows exactly what he was doing at a certain time based on it. He also told me about how much weekly client meetings help, as he is constantly touching base with all clients. He lastly added how he’s been doing this for a long time, and it comes with experience.
Alyssa Ellington, Associate Vice President & Senior Digital News Producer, told me about how she was the one to bring Basecamp to the team as a managing/scheduling tool. She then talked about how important it is, as in an agency, the team’s schedule will rarely align. Everyone is doing everything, and you need a failsafe to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Alyssa personally uses a million different lists and checklists for everything she does. She said that where her time goes is so important and due dates help her, so whether a time heavy or near deadline assignment comes her way, she knows to do that first.
I’ve also found that everyone enjoys having multiple clients to work with on any given day. Senior Vice President and Travel and Tourism Director Sue Hamilton has been working with the Tun Tavern almost exclusively as of recently. She told me about the flexibility of working with multiple different clients, how she would take a break from a client she was working on a lot. However, she also told me how great the Tun is to work with and that she does many exciting things with them. I agree with her how multiple clients can provide the comfort of keeping things exciting, and how important that is at an agency.
Account Supervisor & Digital News Producer Grace Hanlon said something similar to Sue. She enjoys the variety of clients, keeping everything refreshing. When I asked her about staying organized, she said that organization comes from staying flexible, staying calm and cool, and being willing to change away from individual style.
Creating for multiple clients can be tough, but my time at D+P has shown me that I am better at adapting than I thought I would be.
Devine + Partners is a Philadelphia public relations agency. We offer a full range of communications services – from message and content development and media relations to issues management and employee and community engagement.
