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Daniel A Hansen

About section ... I'm the one on the left. ;)

I am a huge pop culture nerd obsessed with anything Avatar The Last Airbender, Star Wars, LOTR, or Harry Potter-related. I love symbols and pictures, meanings and messages hidden within plain sight! Which is why I think I gravitate heavily to filmmaking and creative writing. I am just looking for that one company to give me a chance to show what I can do.

My Portfolio

So a portfolio is supposed to show off your best of the best work. If that is the case, perhaps the best example for my portfolio and this internship would be this website! I built, designed, organized, posted, edited, and everything else on this website by myself, for JNJ Studios. However, I also performed other tasks in and outside of my degree that impacted their company lately. So let's get started!

My English internship can be roughly categorized into three stages.

Stage One:

The organization stage.

Short Introduction: The company was barely riding its first two-wheeled bicycle with its training wheels still on, learning to get a handle on being a video production company that had just gone viral and was growing faster than anticipated. They had dived headfirst into a deep pool and was needing some help with their digital representation on social media. So they hired me to be their "Youtube/Social Media specialist." My role was to make and organize content for their social media accounts, specifically their YouTube channel.

There were some other minor changes I made to help with the organization, but I think this example does the most justice in showing what all of those organization opportunities were like and how I impacted the company.

Identify the type of document used: The following documents are "before and after" examples of me helping them to organize some of their documents and the structure of their company in terms of social media. It is a comparison between the first script for their first fan video they made, versus my new template for them with Youtube's best practices and improved design.

Skills used: They were using Microsoft's Excel to write scripts, they weren't even in Microsoft's Word. I watch a lot of "How to YouTube" videos all the time, creators like Brian G, Tim Schmoyer, Darel Eves, Think Media, and more! So I used my organizational skills and made a script template for their Youtube videos. I took the "best practices" from all the YouTubers that I knew and put them into the script. I broke it into sections, named each section, and gave it a brief explanation of the goal for each section. I then gave a timestamp of roughly how long each section should be in a video. I left some room to re-arrange the order or asterisks where they could fill in a different or new section depending on the context or style of video they were making.

SKILLS:

- Research

- Organization

- Design

- Simplistic

- Concise

Why This Document Is Important: This document is vital to their company. It shaped the format for every episode of their Youtube "Fan Theory" series other than the first episode. Which other than their short or feature-length films, so far, their Fan Theory series is the only non-film/trailer content that they have to advertise as content and their brand identity. So this document greatly impacts the company for the moment.

Their's

Mine

Here is a link to one of the scripts as an example of what the format looks like in use.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/160ZjjPS0saZW1Tbhidejim3pHYzENt6XfusGWI_kbi8/edit?usp=sharing

Stage Two:

The Writing/Video Editing Stage

Short Introduction: The first half of stage two was still a lot of writing, mostly of stuff we decided to toss out, but the second half of stage two turned out to be a transition. From writing to then video editing that which I had just written. During stage one as well as the first phase of stage two, I wrote roughly six to seven scripts for the "Fan Theory" web series they were making. One or two of them I paired up with another intern, Edward, who helped with the theory, but once he finished his drafts I would be the chief editor and the final say before each script was passed off and ready for production.

I also wrote multiple 'skits' that were just fun comedy sketches to make, but they haven't looked at them yet or were tossed out when we couldn't make deals with certain sponsorships that I had written them specifically for.

Identify the type of document used: The following documents are the list of episodes we have written and planned to shoot for production or are in the middle of making.

The idea was that we would take theories from fans and around the internet and attempt to explain or present them in a neutral manner. We then shift from the scripts and documents to an episode I made from one of the scripts.

Skills used: This used my English degree in the sense of learning to research and write multiple scripts in a short amount of time. We would find many versions of the same theory were some added or took away from the 'core' theory. We would keep reading until we discovered the main argument or 'the core' of the theory in question and prepare it for presentation in our video. Here is a list of the episodes we have produced but not published so far, and then here is a sample of one of the episodes I did. (example after skill set used and why document/video is important.)

SKILLS:

- Research - Fact-Finding Skills

- Writing - Guidining Eye-line or Focal Point

- Storytelling - Pacing of Video Depending on 'Style' of Video

- Video Editing

- Technical Skills

Episodes

1 - Did More Airbenders Survive When the Firenation Attacked? (written by Keane)

2 - White Cabbages - (Written by Keane, revised by Daniel)

3 - Sky Bison's Lost Days - how the sky bison made it out of the genocide to re-emerge in The Legend of Korra series. (written by Edward, edited and revised by Daniel)

4 - Who's That Lion Turtle? - The origins of The Lion Turtles (Written by Daniel and Edward, revised by Daniel)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/160ZjjPS0saZW1Tbhidejim3pHYzENt6XfusGWI_kbi8/edit?usp=sharing

5 - Yue's Meteor - "Celestial Rock Slinging" - (Researched and written by Daniel)

6 - Momo's true meaning! - (Currently being written... by Daniel)

Fan Theory Ep 4 - Who's That Lion Turtle?

[Written by Daniel Hansen and Edward Enciso, Revised by Daniel, Edited by Daniel]

Episode Script - https://docs.google.com/document/d/160ZjjPS0saZW1Tbhidejim3pHYzENt6XfusGWI_kbi8/edit?usp=sharing

Stage Two: (Continued)

The Writing/Video Editing Stage

Short Introduction: The third phase of stage two is where things turned a bit off the beaten path, but I have also learned a lot in regards to the industry I want to go into and to prepare for my future.

I thought that video editing had nothing to do with writing. I was dead wrong. I have been watching multiple video tutorials and masterclasses that I can find from the greatest of the great in the profession and I have found the following. I realized that just like writing a research paper, a good video requires that you have a theme, sort of like a thesis. You have paragraphs with a focused argument supporting that thesis, the video requires you have chapters or sequences that also back up the thesis. Both require great transitions and a conclusion. So even though I am not directly writing as much at the moment, I am learning how video editing and storytelling relate to writing.

I also have realized that most people in the film industry don't have just one skill. They aren't just a writer, but they tend to be a writer/director like Ryan Johnson who directed Star Wars Episode 8. They edit and direct, or they design sets and make costumes, they act, produce, and direct in some cases. like Angelina Jolie. They usually have a second or third skill in the same industry.

Identify the type of document used: The following are two examples from early on in the internship to later in the internship. Depicting the level of skill, storytelling, knowledge, audio designing, and other skills that I have developed over the course of the internship.

The video on the left is about getting to know JNJ video and was made early on. You will see it is more of just a montage of random fun videos put together with overlaying text that is not quite as organized.

In the other video, you will see overlaying text but it is organized and minimized as lower thirds so it isn't stealing the eye's focus from the main subject of the frame. Then at other times, I will use the text or the action/motion to 'guide" the eye's focus to where I want it to be as an editor instead of just in the center of the frame. It also has a story to it, explaining the development of the film project from just an idea to a final result, as well as the process of making a film from the concept and storyboards to casting and the end result. It is a multilayered video. Enjoy!

Why This Document Is Important: These videos are important because both are about explaining who JNJ Studios is in different ways and with a different goal in mind. However, both will be used in marketing the 'brand' or 'identity' of the company. So it was vital to show flexibility in the style of the videos.

Vid 1

Vid 2

Chaotic Focus
Vs.
Professional 'Guided' Focus

Stage Three:

The Social Media/Marketing Phase

Short Introduction: This Stage was roughly around the period of Oct 5th to Oct 30th. Writing Fan Theory episodes and short skits were put on the back burner. That doesn't mean I still didn't work on them from time to time, but this was the social media and marketing phase. With the upcoming release of our official trailer teaser, all the team's focus was put on getting the word out digitally that we were making this fan-film project.

Identify the type of document used: The following document(s) are examples of me using canva.com to create a custom letterhead for our company, as well as creating a custom formal 'personalized' cover letter for other Youtubers/businesses we reached out to for collaboration.

Skills used:

SKILLS:

- Design - Resourcefulness

- Organization

- Creativity

- Simplistic

- Personable

Why This Document Is Important: This document was important because it was the first impression of JNJ Studios towards other potential collaborations or competitors. It was to let others know that we were serious and striving for a level of professionalism that most "want to be" YouTubers or starting video companies neglect at first.