My Story
"Julia is a stand out creative. I both managed and mentored Julia for the three years that she worked at AlterEgo, moving up from Production Assistant to Associate Producer. She has exceptional writing skills with the ability to fluidly flex between both short form and long form writing. While at AlterEgo, Julia showcased her broad skillset working on multiple promotional campaigns for networks and brands, serving as a lead writer on our mid-form documentary and was the writer for our social media accounts.
Julia's project management skills are unparalleled. Julia consistently showed that she was able to both master existing organizational systems as well as research, develop and implement systems to help our team run more efficiently. She is a motivated self-starter, enthusiastic to take on any task with thorough attention to detail. Aside from strong creative skills, this production unicorn also has strong technical abilities. She was quick to pick up and master media management and assist with streamlining the process. She has knowledge and experience in Avid as well as project management software.
She is warm, welcoming and professional both on and off set. She is curious and charismatic and always brings positive energy to any project that she is part of. I simply could not recommend her enough!" - Erica Kern, Creative Director
I've always been a cinephile.
I used my education to harness my passion for film through classes in high school and at Oberlin College, developing my knowledge of cinema by learning not just how to analyze films, but unpack how they were made.
At Oberlin, I learned about writing, directing, sound-recording, cinematography, and Adobe Premiere Pro. In my last semester, I utilized this training to create experimental short films. Then, upon graduating, I moved to Hong Kong to work as an English tutor for Lingnan University, with the hope of engaging in film production within a new culture.
Once in Hong Kong, I set out to find avenues to engage in multi-media production.
Global Origins Theatre Festival - I directed a one-act play that was performed in front of an in-person audience in Hong Kong while simultaneously Skyped to a live audience in London. Using a stationary laptop camera, this challenge pushed my directing skills to accommodate a unique viewer experience, considering how stage directions would be communicated through the lens and overseas.
Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival - As a festival volunteer, I met film producers and curators, learning more about the world of short and feature-length films. In addition to helping the events run smoothly, I filmed and edited a promotional video capturing the festival's opening night and wrote a grant application for the festival, introducing me to the art and politics of funding creative endeavors.
I discovered film as a teaching tool.
In my role as an English tutor, I presented English language films to Hong Kong university students, helping me acquire a new perspective on how nuanced editing can help a film transcend linguistic barriers.
To provide a new teaching tool for a university course, I cut together archival documentary footage with shots of educational commentary, for which I wrote the script. For my next project, I edited FaceTime discussions between my colleagues to create a "tips and tricks" video on studying abroad. Then, I wrote, filmed, and edited short videos on writing concepts. In each of these projects, I focused on how I could use editing with Final Cut Pro X to make the films more clear and enticing to students for whom English is a second or third language.
My transition from Tutor to freelance Editor brought new skill-building opportunities.
After the end of my tutoring contract in June 2020, I learned more about Adobe Premiere Pro through two courses at Future Media Concepts (FMC). From there, I began working on freelance projects, from promotional and music videos for a musician to how-to videos for a local business. Always excited to gain new skills, I also completed an Adobe After Effects tutorial and an FMC Avid Media Composer course. I added some variety to my freelance work by taking on a 3-day gig as a Production Assistant at Dixon Davis Media Company, editing automated English transcripts, transcribing Spanish dialogue by hand, and recommending best takes to the Producer for political campaign videos.
Freelancing launched me towards my next step as a full time Production Assistant.
In April 2021, I started a full time job as a Production Assistant at a video content creation shop called AlterEgo, wherein I worked with the writer/producer, edit, and social media teams. This position allowed me to try on many hats and soak up as much knowledge as possible. As an assistant to both the technical and the creative players, I gravitated more and more to writer/producer work. It felt like home, and I learned how to utilize my technical background to be a better producer. I expedited the post-production workflow with my expertise in media management and ability to string out my scripts in Avid before handing off to the editor.
At AlterEgo, my career path quickly transitioned from editing to writing and producing.
In December 2022, I was assigned the role of Writer on AlterEgo's first mid-form documentary, Wild Away. Continuing my work as Writer on the film, in July 2023 I was promoted to an Associate Producer role in the company, expanding upon my creative, project management, on-set, and technical responsibilities. I also tried on the new hat of Production Coordinator while on set.
The last three years affirmed my passion for docu-style storytelling.
After writing the script for Wild Away, I produced the rough cut and the film is now in its fine cut stage. I also recently wrote and produced a mini-documentary for a local barber shop. There's nothing quite like finding people who love what they do and giving them a platform to tell their story.
In July 2024, I started a full-time job as Associate Producer & Production Coordinator at 5:00 Films & Media, where I am continuing to work in non-fiction storytelling.