Portfolio Links

• The first thing you should know about me is I’ve been a freelancer my whole career. Take a look at my ABOUT page to get a taste of how I have approached my work.

• For video work samples, the VIDEO page has a good overview and the SCIENCE/ TECHNOLOGY page will have a more focused selection.

• Video has been the main focus of my freelance work, but I’m also an experienced writer, designer, photographer and organizational communicator and social media strategist. See my COMMUNICATIONS page and SOCIAL MEDIA page. Writing samples can be found at the bottom of the Communications page.

• I have produced a couple of PODCASTS, and I self published a book, URBAN BREMERTON - which I wrote, edited, photographed and art-directed.

• I produced two videos for Ai2 earlier this year - Molmo Launch Video. More Than Open.

Key Projects

Project 1: Video for The University of Washington’s Computational Neuroscience Center

Challenge

Create a video that’s specific and technical enough to appeal to potential students or collaborators for the UWCNC, but also broad and engaging enough to appeal to the general population.

Solutions

1) Look for storytelling opportunities that capture or illuminate something technical. Wrapping the technical aspects up into a story makes them easy to understand for non-technical people.
• The moth story at 1:38 is a good example of this, I shared a story from an applied mathematics researcher who teamed up with a biologist to build a neural network architecture based on a moth brain’s architecture. The moth story is easy to follow, but also contains a peek at some of the deep science work happening at UWCNC.
• A second example is towards the end, when the story pivots to the student experience, and we feel the excitement and passion of students by hearing them explain the subject of their research. Again - giving technically minded folks a peek at some of the deep science work.

2) Utilize classic storytelling techniques to make it engaging and understandable to all.
• We first meet our main characters (Adrienne and Eric) and in their “home” setting, UW, and we learn some background about who they are and what they value.
• From there, widen the story out by introducing supporting characters - their UW colleagues, Google and Allen Institute for Brain Science collaborators.
• Intentional use of scene changes at 02:25, 03:43 and 4:10.
• At the end, bringing us back to the “home” setting and our main characters - ending with big, forward looking ideas that hint at what the future may hold.

Project 2: Organizational Communication in e-newsletter

Background: I do comms for a startup food co-op grocery store in downtown Bremerton, WA. We are a tiny store - think convenience store size - trying to serve as a grocery store / fresh foods market. We struggle with low sales due to the perception that people can’t find what they need at the store, and that we aren’t responsive enough to customer feedback. We rely heavily on the goodwill of our member-owners who shop with us because they support our mission.

Challenge

In 2022 we conducted a survey of our members. At the end, I needed to communicate the results to our members in a way that made them feel heard, smoothing over frustrations that exist in our membership, and encouraging readers to shop more.

Solution

• The survey results are the “hook” for this email - it’s what brings people in - but it’s not the message. The messages I wanted to send with this email are, “we share the same values,” “we hear and appreciate your feedback” and “please shop more!”
• To accomplish this I used a good mix of positivity, transparency of shortcomings where appropriate, and reminders of our values throughout.
• Strategy: Pick datapoints from the survey that I can use to highlight at least two of the messages I want to send. e.g.

”How do you get to the store” - surfacing this data allows me to acknowledge that parking is a barrier for some (we hear you), and also to remind people that we offer bike racks, and to give a little nudge for people to walk / bike to the store (we share values).
”Shopping experience” - surfacing this data allows me to acknowledge that we aren’t fully meeting people’s needs yet (we hear you), but also to remind them that their shopping is the piece we need to be successful and eventually to expand (please shop more!).

Read the full message here

Project 3: Generative AI in 60 Seconds

Challenge:

Get the word out about new Generative AI courses from Amazon’s Machine Learning University (MLU). MLU is Amazon’s internal training program designed to upskill employees in ML topics.

Solutions:

• A proposed a video format I called a “flash course,” which we’d present as being a minute long introduction to the topic that the courses teaches. Instead of it feeling like a marketing video, it’s presenting useful information that will draw in people who are likely to be interested in taking a course. We created two flash courses “Generative AI in 90 seconds” and '“Bedrock in 60 seconds.” The Bedrock video is below.
• I developed the concept with the MLU marketing team, and course instructor Cem Sazara. I wrote the script, and then produced and edited the video.
• The video was picked up by a separate team tasked with educating the company on Bedrock, who valued it as a useful primer. They were able to elevate the video far beyond where MLU could have taken it on their own, carrying MLU’s marketing message along with it, and making this video their most watched marketing video ever.
• The video was also picked up by Amazon’s all-employee newsletter from a PR pitch I wrote and submitted - a huge “get” for the MLU team.

password - Ai2Review
NOTE - this video is only to be viewed for purposes of evaluating my work. Please do not share the video, or any information found in it beyond the circle of people involved in this process.

Ai2 Portfolio

Hello Ai2, You’re currently on my website, so feel free to click around and explore on your own, but I’ll include links below to help you find the most relevant pages.