By Namish Modi
Upon graduation, Simon Raiff looks to work in video production, editing, and creation.
Raiff’s co-op role as a Video Content Development Associate with Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE) at the University of Waterloo helped shape what promises to be a bright future.
Raiff, currently in his fourth year in the Global Business and Digital Arts (GBDA) program, was thrilled with the opportunity to produce the first-ever Employer Impact Awards videos from start to finish in Spring 2020.
"Simon took on a very big, very visible project during his work term. He was responsible for producing a suite of six videos, celebrating our first-ever CEE Employer Impact Award winners during a pandemic, where traditional filming methods weren't possible,” says strategic communications manager in CEE, Kari Pasick Stewart. “The final videos were outstanding, and Simon managed the project without a hitch."
Raiff spent the term working exclusively on producing six two-minute videos for Employer Impact Award winners. He also produced 30-second promo videos for the awards presentation on October 8 (Links to the full-length videos are below).
What Raiff enjoyed the most was the opportunity to not only edit the videos, but the ability to have his vision come to life from start to finish.
"It was fully my project, and I thought that was really cool that they trusted me with that,”
Simon Raiff
Faculty of Arts, Global Arts and Business Co-op Student
He adds that he wasn’t necessarily the person just editing videos but had a major hand in putting his ideas into practice. From storyboards to scripts to proposals, Raiff shined and felt empowered by his tasks.
“I want to be able to realize my own visions,” he says.
Raiff created scripts for the videos, reached out to winning employers, collected b-roll, created interview questions and used his excellent skills in Adobe Premiere Pro to pull it all together. His videos likely set a framework for future Employer Impact Awards.
“They trusted me with setting the future direction of what these videos are going to look like for the foreseeable future,” says Raiff.
“When I’m going to think back at this co-op experience, that’s going to be the thing I come back to.”
An opportunity to reach out to employers and set up interviews also helped develop Raiff’s professional communication skills, an added talent to his growing portfolio. He conducted the interviews via video call and transcribed them to develop graphic cards.
While Raiff couldn’t go out and shoot any video due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was able to obtain b-roll from the various companies to help supplement the videos while also syncing in catchy music.
Past experiences
A required component of Raiff’s program is the completion of one co-op term.
However, this wasn’t Raiff’s first work experience. During previous off-study terms, he self-arranged two unpaid internships.
Raiff worked in video roles at Impact BBDO and the Dubai branch of the World Wildlife Federation (WWF). His family was living in the United Arab Emirates at the time, so he went there during off-terms.
He hopes his work-integrated learning experiences will help shape a future in video production.
Videos:
