multimedia
An Online Celebration
Published: Duke Graduate School website
Date: 2020
When COVID led to lockdowns across the United States in the spring of 2020, the Duke Graduate School could not hold its in-person commencement ceremonies that May. Nonetheless, the school wanted to create something online to recognize and celebrate its graduates.
I produced a package consisted of two main pieces: a video and a mini website. The video featured words of encouragement and advice from multiple faculty members and alumni. The challenge was that because of the lockdown, I had to rely on the subjects recording their own videos. That led to a hodgepodge of videos of varying content and quality. Nonetheless, I was able to craft a narrative from six individual messages and some B-roll to produce a reflective and ultimately upbeat video. The individual messages were also turned into separate videos. I also designed and coded the three-page website, which featured the video and lists of graduates with student-submitted photos. Finally, I created a series of social media posts and graphics to promote the package during graduation weekend.
I built the entire package in the two weeks leading up to graduation. It was a very tight timeframe, especially given that there were many other responsibilities requiring my attention during that stretch. The package called on nearly every skill in my repertoire and demonstrated the value of my versatility and my composure under deadline. In the end, we were able to deliver a nice hat-tip to our graduates.
