The places production will take you.

My name is Melissa Perez and I have been working in video production since graduating college. I first became interested in production during my time at Villanova University. My junior year I took a Social Justice Documentary Course and it opened my eyes to the possibilities video unlocks. I ended up enrolling in the course for both my junior and senior years. During my time in the course, we produced a documentary called “The Mayor of Graterford.” The documentary explored the legislation around the sentence of “life without parole.” We were able to film inside of Graterford Prison in Philadelphia and interview inmates who were serving life sentences. We also interviewed public officials and ex-convicts who had either served their sentences or had their life sentences commuted. This experience showed me that video production can take you places and introduce you to people you would never have been exposed to otherwise. From then on, I knew I wanted to pursue this as my career and I was excited to see what other experiences production would have in store for me in the future.

Since graduating in 2018, I have been working as a project manager for a video production agency. I work closely with our in-house production team to produce video content on behalf of our clients. Seven of the videos we created this year won in various categories for the 2023 Telly Awards. My clients are in a wide array of industries such as healthcare, tourism/travel, banking, technology, and so on. I have been on set in resorts in the Canary Islands, window warehouses in New Hampshire, and in the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia. Production has continued to take me to places I would have never had the chance to see and introduced me to incredible people I would have never met. I get to help people tell their stories while experiencing these magnificent places and that is what keeps me motivated in this industry.