Farrin
filmmaker, animator, producer

Resume

 

FARRIN ABBOTT

Bay area, San Francisco, California
farrin.abbott@gmail.com   | www.farrinsquare.com

Creative Associate Director

Video producer of Emmy awarding-winning programming, providing creative and technical direction for a wide range of production needs and assignments with emphasis in science communications.

Accomplished professional with in-depth experience in all aspects of digital media, production, and storytelling strategy. Results-oriented, decisive producer, specializing in high production values and quality on modest budgets and tight deadlines. Highly organized and fluent on social media platforms. Strong ability to plan and develop content according to style and editorial policy, varying language, tone, and character of messages according to desired impact on targeted audience.

For more about me and my professional background, watch here.

TECHNICAL SKILLS:

  • Web Content / Digital Design

  • Creative Development

  • Storytelling Strategy

  • Science Communications

  • Higher Education / Government

  • Motion Graphics / Data Design

  • Scriptwriting / Storyboarding

  • Project Management

  • Proposals, Bids, Budgeting, Funding

  • Educational / eLearning Modules

  • Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X

  • Adobe After Effects

  • Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

  • Cinema 4D

  • Sound Design: Audition, Audacity

  • JavaScript, beginner

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Stanford University, Stanford, CA, January 2021—present 
Associate Director, Visual Media

Visual Media Lead, Producer, filmmaker, editor, designer, and manager. Visual lead for video and photography production, and visual content storytelling selection. Core member of the branding team developing the style, tone, and website platform for the Office of Development. Collaborates closely with the Stanford research community to create engaging content to share breakthrough discoveries, promote campus culture, highlight personalities, and design targeted brand messaging projects using design, film, photography, and sound.

Selected Achievements:

  • Many of the content pieces created in this role are available to select audiences, not public yet or pending. Available on request.

  • Drawing on years of university experience, I successfully worked with a creative agency to balance the traditional needs of the university while creatively pushing the envelope to develop new ways to present our stories.

  • Led the content and story selection for a large-scale Stanford anthem video with many interview subjects from various research interests on campus. This content has been utilized to craft 4 additional theme videos highlighting the pillars of the Office of Development’s fundraising priorities.

Stanford University, Stanford, CA, September 2019—January 2021 
Creative Producer, University Communications

Producer, filmmaker, editor, designer, and animator. Collaborated closely with the Stanford research community to create engaging fast-paced news content to promote research media press releases, media asset packages, campus culture, highlight personalities, and design targeted brand messaging utilizing motion graphics, film, animation, photography, and sound.

Selected Achievements:

  • Edited and animated an on-brand student acceptance video highlighting personal student moments, utilizing user-generated content, and far surpassing typical views and audience retention. Original branded design published in Forbes magazine highlighting Stanford’s acceptance response during COVID.

  • The distinguished honor of covering Stanford’s double 2020 Nobel Prize winners in Economics and the 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Economics. And then asked to assist again during Carolyn Bertozzi’s 2022 winning media package.

  • Animated research story for a publication in Science. Highlighted scientist’s voice over, translated to Italian and used for the 150th anniversary of Roma Capitale, a large exhibition organized at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni on Science in Rome.

  • Brand design for Stanford’s Virtual Admission website, the tinyLecture video series on YouTube, the student holiday video series of 2020, and various other campaigns and storytelling projects for campus partners.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA, November 2017—September 2019 
Digital Media Producer

Producer, editor and animator. Created engaging content to share the scientific breakthrough discoveries at SLAC, a Department of Energy National Lab located at Stanford University.

Selected Achievements:

  • Produced video and photo media coverage of the Palimpsest x-ray work at SLAC’s SSRL facility. The project successfully unearthed the hidden text of a 1,000 year old manuscript. Photos and video were published in Gizmodo and Newsweek.

  • Coordinated the first Photowalk since 2015, taking local photographers into rarely seen locations while also generating a large amount of photo coverage for communications and media use.

  • Produced, animated, and illustrated the LHC Noir animated story for Symmetry Magazine, a dark comedy of the last days of a proton in the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

  • Created a complete stop motion studio set including lab landscaping, molecular miniatures and beakers. Animated and edited stop motion scenes in a branded video message highlighting the people that represent the lab values and overall research missions.

KQED Public Media, San Francisco, CA, September 2016—September 2017 
Digital Media Producer, Arts Education

Produced and edited KQED’s Art School, Emmy award-winning show profiling artists in Bay Area. Collaborated with technical and creative staff to develop multimedia resources and professional development tools targeting young people preparing for careers in the arts. Supervised all production and post-production activities through delivery of final project.

Selected Achievements:

  • Received an Emmy for co-director, editor and animator of the Santa Rosa Cartoonist’s ‘Fire Story’ Comes to Life.

  • Produced, animated, and illustrated Oakland Fire Tribute video, one of the top-rated engagement videos of 2016; finalist for the 2017 Online Commentary Award in Online Journalism.

  • Chosen for participation in incubator program to develop new methods and products to enhance quality and content of programming to serve needs of an evolving public media community.

  • Improved motion graphics workflow and branding identity assets for new PBS Digital Studios show, Above the Noise.

Udacity, Mountain View, CA, August 2015—September 2016 
Video Producer

Developed digital media assets for use across all client stakeholder environments, in collaboration with subject matter experts to produce online course content for computer programming. Guided all phases of production, overseeing project development from concept to completion. Creative force behind motion graphics and supplementary course materials.

  • In partnership with Google, developed original and innovative learning design assets, such as Dependency Injection skit featuring clear explanation of highly technical computer programming function.

  • Produced new video to help with user acquisition during hackathon design sprint; winner of well-received Immediate Impact Award (December 2015).

  • Led workshops and trained staff on use of After Effects, Illustrator and integrating the full suite of Adobe apps into the production workflow with 12 video editors on-staff.

Stanford University, Stanford, CA, May 2013—August 2015 
Video Production Director

Managed video production for online course content from pre-production to upload; titles included The Science of Decision Making, Behind and Beyond Big Data, The Future of Food, and Environmental Risk and Resilience. Led production teams and consulted with Stanford researchers and subject matter experts, under faculty advisement of leading neuroscientist Dr. William Newsome, PhD.

  • Directed 2-camera DSLR video interviews, edited content, and color corrected production with integrated motion graphics. Designed 1st Drupal site for use with project.

  • Production and content strategy for 45+ videos for 4 online courses used in Worldview Stanford programming.

  • Created support and supplemental materials comprising print collateral, infographics, and audio podcasts.

Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, December 2011—October 2013
Video Editor, Media Designer & Web Content Specialist

Wrote and produced health education scripts for short film format and eLearning modules. Designed HTML5 interactive layouts in compliance with current medical and scientific understanding of health issues, teaching objectives, and grant guidelines.

  • Created online learning module in partnership with the William MacArthur Foundation featuring modules with media segments in clickable choose-your-own-adventure format.

  • Designed SaaS system with open-source software for use by psychology researchers to monitor user experience and gather data for research publications.

  • Mentored 5 to 8 film and 3 to 5 journalism interns on production techniques for blog and social media content.

  • Submitted Google Ad Grant for nonprofits and awarded up to $10K a month in ad funds; tripled web visibility in 3 months.

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, February 2006—December 2011 
Grant Manager

Appointed Research Administrative Director for 30+ research faculty members with 10 to 20 federal grants per portfolio. Launched new $72M DOE Energy Center as the Business Administrator where I managed the budget, including the subprojects at other institutions, research reporting, and maintained the research dissemination website. Managed logistics and protocols for grant reporting, purchases, tracking costs, salaries, and government compliance.


EDUCATION:

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
Film Production coursework, 2007

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY in St. Louis 
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, 2001 (with 40+ hours of coursework in Mathematics & Electrical Engineering)

AWARDS:

EMMY, 2018
Co-Director/Animator/Editor, “A Santa Rosa Cartoonist’s ‘Fire Story’ Comes to Life”, KQED

CASE AWARD, SILVER, 2021
Producer/Editor/Animator/Designer, “Welcome to Stanford: The Class of 2024 Reacts,” Stanford University

TELLY AWARD, SILVER, 2021
Producer/Editor/Animator/Designer, “Welcome to Stanford: The Class of 2024 Reacts,” Stanford University

TELLY AWARD, SILVER, 2021
Animator/Designer, “Stanford historian reflects on a career spent studying civil rights and Martin Luther King Jr.,” Stanford University


CERTIFICATIONS:

DATA VISUALIZATION FOR STORYTELLERS
Berkeley School of Journalism Advanced Media Institute, 2021

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER
Lynda.com Instructional Designer certification program (13 courses), 2016

INTERESTS:

I love bicycling California, coffee, stunt kite flying, learning new stuff, podcasting, photography, storytelling, and comedy.