Key Takeaways from the NYC Experience

By Paige Bara, Creative Director, Matty Leech, Account Manager & Elliot Hodgin, Producer

Every year, Deb Morrison and a cohort of 5 additional advertising professors take about 100 advertising students on a trip across the country to New York City. While here, each student gets a unique schedule of agency visits where they get to explore the industry, ask questions, and network with people in the industry. After our week in the city, we learned an unbelievable amount about our futures, soaking in information like sponges. However, there were a few takeaways that really stood out to us about learning about ourselves and our careers.

KNOW YOUR WORTH.

The idea of “knowing your worth” came up a lot throughout our time on this trip. It can be daunting to be expected to know your worth at such a young age, but just like everything else in life, it takes time. It comes with failure (lots of it) and experience (lots of it). Through adversity and failure, you are forced to adjust and learn as you go. Over time, this will not only help you discover your worth, but you will find the confidence to handle anything that comes your way. Figuring this out at a young age will only set you up for success in your future career-- whether it be asking for a pay raise, taking a chance with a new position, or knowing how to stand up for yourself.

FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU DON’T WANT.

Knowing what you don’t want to do is just as important, if not more important, than knowing what you do want to do. By finding out what you don’t like, it makes it leaps and bounds easier to search for things that might actually peak your interest. The three of us all experienced this on the various agency visits we went on. Whether we figured out the kind of work we didn’t like, the environment we didn’t fit into, or the size of company we didn’t want to work for, it helped us get one step closer to figuring out the kind of job we would each enjoy when we make our way into the real world.

KEEP AN OPEN MIND.

Often times this is easier said than done. But on a trip where you’re presented with countless opportunities to push yourself out of your comfort zone, TAKE THEM! Drop the expectations for what you think this trip should be, drop the expectations of yourself in comparison to others, and drop the expectations of what you think you know about each agency. NYC will prove you wrong in each of these categories but that’s the most important part! This experience will teach you more in a week than a year of school (no offense UO). But it’s important to say yes, do things you typically wouldn’t, and keep your mind open!

HOW I STARTED AHM

By Vicky Conroy Agency Director

From the moment I stepped foot in Allen Hall in 2016, I knew I wanted to take advantage of all the opportunities offered there. The UO School of Journalism and Communication has over 30 student organizations, each with its own focus. I saw many of my passions reflected in them and had even joined a few. But I felt there was something missing.

I quickly discovered that one of my greatest passions was multimedia and video production. After completing the Gateway to Media sequence, I registered for J409: Allen Hall Studios, a small experiential learning course taught by Assistant Professor Ed Madison. Even though I was just a sophomore and felt totally unprepared, and in my opinion unqualified, I was accepted to the course and began learning immediately.

The course required students to partner with Portland TriMet in winter 2017 to produce a video. We worked for the entire term producing, shooting, participating in workshops and editing, until we had a finished product to show the client. We developed a lot of valuable skills, including talking to clients to ensure the vision they want is portrayed, interviewing, camera operation and lighting. I loved every second of this course, and I thought maybe it could be something more.

An interview process hadn’t even crossed my mind, but since there were only 24 spots available, we had to narrow down the pool. So Matty, Maya and I started the process of interviewing all our amazing applicants. I don’t just say “amazing” to be nice; I mean that we literally had some of the most talented and inspiring people apply to be a part of the first-ever Allen Hall Media team. All the students seemed so excited to be a part of making the agency into what we wanted it to be.

I struggled during the interview process. A lot. How was I supposed to interview people who were my age, or even older, and decide who to keep and who to disappoint? I knew I wanted this process to be fair, so I had to put my bias and emotions aside and do what was best for the agency. I listened to every piece of advice Maya gave me, and we selected a team of 24 students with the goal of expanding the agency each term.

PRODUCTION BEGINS.

We are now in full swing as far as production, and on our second term as an agency. We learned a lot during our first term in the fall as far as what worked and what didn’t. Our staff participates in workshops each week on a specific topic, such as lighting, photography and editing, to ensure they are gaining the skills to produce work our clients need. Our producers are learning how to communicate effectively with clients from the initial meeting all the way to delivery of the final product. Also, this website was designed by our amazing creative team and they are working on keeping our brand consistent and engaging for our student audience.

We are currently working with UO Housing to create videos promoting academic residential communities such as the Building Business Leaders and the Carnegie Global Scholars ARCs.

THE MAKING OF AN AGENCY.

Maya Lazaro, the SOJC’s faculty advisor for J409, reached out and asked if I would be interested in turning the course into a student-run agency. I immediately said yes. It was the ideal situation for me: a student-run agency where I could use my public relations skills — including writing, strategy, and client communications — while feeding both my passion for videography and my portfolio by producing multimedia projects for real-world clients.

I quickly realized I couldn’t do all this pre-planning alone, so I asked my friend Matty Leech to help. We worked together to organize and plan out what we wanted the agency to look like. Then we crafted promotional emails to send to SOJC students about the new opportunity taking shape in Allen Hall.

Although I was excited for the agency to be up and running, I was honestly terrified that nobody beyond Maya and Matty would show interest. Boy, was I wrong! Our agency is open to all majors within the SOJC, so I knew we could reach a lot of students with a wide variety of skill sets. But I still wasn’t expecting the huge response we received. We had over 150 applicants in one week.

We are also working with the UO Common Reading program to make a promotional video about the university’s book pick for the 2019-20 season, “Under the Feet of Jesus.”

Lastly, we have partnered with the City of Springfield and the Economic Development Program to produce photography highlighting manufacturing jobs in the community that often go unnoticed.

Keep an eye out on our social media, @allenhallmedia on all platforms, to see all the amazing work our team will be doing this year!

FINDING THE NARRATIVE

By Lindsey Reed, Lead Editor

In visual storytelling, there are many important components to make it a “good production.” Good audio, proper lighting and a sharp image are all crucial, but all of that renders useless if there isn’t a good narrative. It’s important to pull the audience into the story and get them to engage with the video.

BUT HOW DOES ONE “NARRATIVE.”

A good story starts long before you pick up a camera. A producer should do the necessary research to ensure that the story in pursuit is captivating enough to get people to watch. A narrative can be difficult to find, but the easiest way to gage if a story will be viable is if there is a conflict. We are all familiar with the natural progression of a story arc and at the height of it is the conflict. This isn’t to say that the conflict must always be negative, but it’s the point of tension that creates a dynamic story.

FIND THE “GOLDEN EGG.”

So, you’ve found a good story that has a hook, now what? After interviewing your subject, you’ve got to sift through roughly 45 minutes of interview for only 5 minutes of screen-time. To most effectively find the “golden egg” among countless minutes of footage, find the parts that speak to you. Trust your intuition as a filmmaker to know what will hook your audience. 97.3% of the time that same thing that captivates you will captivate them.

MAKE YOURSELF A DANK SCRAMBLE.

After you’ve got your golden eggs, it’s time for structure. While a character arc is a simple formula to create a good narrative, I’ve found a quick-and-dirty way to form your story. Professor Randy Olson developed the And, But, Therefore narrative structure, a simple formula to create a story. First there is the set up (and), followed by the problem (but) and ending with a solution (therefore). Olson confirms that the But, or the conflict, is what starts the story and everything before that is all introductory and contextual.

Lucky for us, conflict is all around. So go find your next story; it could be right under your nose!