National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

Getting recognized for your talent and craft is without a doubt an amazing experience and serves as an indicator that you are on the right path no matter how long and arduous the journey up ahead may be. Working in the production department of the Spanish television station Univision not only allowed me to hone my video production skills but it granted me a chance to compete in the regional Emmys.  The majority of the video work performed at Univision’s production department entails broadcast commercials.  My goal with each production was to tell a good story in 30 seconds or less.  Easy enough right? It’s only 30 seconds (some commercials would be 60 seconds in length but those are few and rare) of air time, but the timing can make or break it.  All the elements need to play well together and must be timed precisely in pre-production so that when you get to editing you don’t lose the rhythm and pacing of the commercial which can affect the over all message.

One of the first things you learn in storytelling is that everything must have a beginning, middle and ending.  Then you go about learning plot and character development, objectives, obstacles, resolutions, etc.  Having a theatrical and filmmaking foundation I decided to treat each and every television commercial as a mini movie. A movie that must not only convey a message, call to action and branding, but a mini movie that must evoke emotion in the viewer by applying the principalities of good drama (by drama I am referring to storytelling principles).  With time my productions began getting compliments from different department heads and co-workers. I then soon began applying the same principles to PSAs (public services announcements), which became the projects I ended up submitting to the Emmys.