Animated and designed a promotional video for SJCC Basic Needs Department
Produced, animated, and delivered a promotional video through motion graphics and campus footage, creating an accessible resource for the Basic Needs Department.
Dean of San Jose City College's Basic Needs Department. They support students by connecting them with resources such as food assistance and housing support.
Create an engaging promotional video that educates students about the department's available resources while encouraging them to seek support.
With over 16,000 students enrolled at SJCC and nearly two-thirds experiencing basic needs insecurity, the department needed a compelling way to educate students about the no-cost resources and support services available to them.
Before any filming, I mapped the video second by second in two different shot lists. Giving the client real options this early served two purposes. It let them see the structure of the video while changes were still cheap, and their reactions to each version taught me what they actually cared about.
The client chose Option 2, which grouped the resources more clearly and felt more dynamic to them.
Once filming started, I logged every clip in a footage list. One place to see what was filmed and where it fit on the timeline, which kept the edit organized and made gaps easy to spot before they became problems.
An early rough cut gave the client something real to react to. We could point at the screen instead of talking in the abstract.
The review made the priorities clear, and part of my job was being honest about which requests would actually strengthen the video. Three revisions came out of it:
The final video gave the Basic Needs Department an engaging way to reach students, shaped by stakeholders at every step. Two lessons stuck with me from this project.
Clear communication carried this collaboration, and the visual kind mattered as much as the verbal. The shot lists and footage log gave my client a concrete picture of the video at every stage, so alignment never depended on imagination.
Client feedback is a mixed bag of good and bad ideas, and handling it well is a design skill. My client wanted a QR code as the video's contact point, but QR codes fail in video since viewers rarely pause to scan. Instead of rejecting the idea, I redirected it: the department's email and phone number became the primary call to action, solving the real goal with a format that works.