30 May Alina Sutherland shares first steps in life as a SheSays BDA scholar.

I’m the Digital Content Director at a local strategic content studio. My job means that I create ideas for internet content (digital stories, short films, social media, blogging, etc.). We are composed of a super small team, of which 3 of us have “Director” in our title.

That being said, I’m the only Director who cannot create my own visual content— a fact that drives me crazy! I never want to miss an opportunity because of my skill-set.

In a competitive industry, I need to be able to make my own content,
not simply for my own portfolio, but to ensure my place within the company I work for.

With this in mind, after receiving my SheSays BDA scholarship, I chose to take a full day intensive Adobe Premiere Pro Hands-On class with instructor Mike Scalisi. For those unfamiliar with this program, Premiere Pro is an Adobe video editing software used by professionals in the film industry.

The company I work for uses this program for every video project that passes through our doors. It’s a complicated program that takes years to master, but I’m so ready to get started.

Our class took place on a Saturday, which happened to be one of the last snowy days of the season—a perfect weather situation for a daylong class. With the whole city was tucked away, our small class nestled in for a long day of learning.

We started at 9am sharp. BDA provided water and coffee— accommodations that I was very grateful for. This particular course was designed for beginners, and so our instructor began very broadly by discussing camera basics like frame size and frame rate before moving into the actual program.

After we got the basics down, we moved into learning about workflow and how to upload projects into premier. Following this section, we had an hour-long lunch break. After lunch, we dove into constructing an actual video, which was a lot of fun!

Mike notes that a lot of the students who take Premier Pro classes at BDA are graphic designers who are in positions with their companies that require them to be able to continually learn new programs. I think his point is interesting, and perhaps not limited to graphic designers (in my case at least).

I think what I enjoyed learning the most in this class was sound design. It’s so incredibly tedious! But once you’re done, it’s so amazing getting to see everything strung together in one cohesive video.

I had a wonderful time in this class. I learned so much. I can’t wait to take my next class! I’m so grateful to BDA and SheSays for giving me this opportunity to expand my skill-set.