Unsung Heroes - the video trainer: Jeremiah Oh, Shootsta

Jeremiah Oh is a training specialist at Shootsta, a video production company that distributes professional camera kits to clients on a subscription basis, teaching them how to shoot corporate videos. Oh, who is an avid fan of acclaimed director Christopher Nolan, spends up to six hours each time to impart his skills to his clients and it gives him joy when they finally tell their own stories on film.

Why is your job important?

The trainers are the first faces that a new client sees from Shootsta. We spend almost the entire first day with the client and in that time, they get a sense of our our culture, our professionalism and who we are as a company.

To ensure the first impression of Shootsta is a great one, it's important to send the best people first, which is none other than us trainers!

What is the hardest and stressful part of your job?

A trainer’s biggest challenge is time management. 90% of our role is spent travelling around the region training clients and inspiring minds. It took me one year in film school to grasp the concept of balancing both the creative and technical aspects of film-making.

However, in my job, I have no more than four to six hours to equip my clients with those skills. On top of that, I have to keep my energy level at its maximum to continuously engage with my clients and by the end of the day, I’m exhausted!

It is all very exciting and while we are built for lots of traveling and training, it can be challenging to find periods of time to plan, film and execute new training content. It is a lucky thing that we have dedicated teams to help with that!

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

We get to meet amazing people from all walks of life, and we get to see that beautiful transformation where people who have little to no knowledge about video, completely change their way of thinking and begin to plan, shoot and tell their very own stories that they never before imagined.

Since we (the trainers) are the ones holding their hands from the very beginning, we get to share this amazing experience with them from the very start. It's a very rewarding feeling.

First thing that comes to people’s minds when you tell them your job?

When people ask me what I do for a living at Shootsta, I say, "I work in video production and get to teach people how to tell great stories, through film!"

Their responses are usually along the lines of, "That sounds so cool!" and sometimes the occasional, "Do you get to meet any famous people?"

How would you correct/explain to them what you do then?

To further elaborate on what we do, I shift the conversation to what makes us different from other video production companies (which is quite a lot!), and how we all love what we do at Shootsta.

Sometimes, I’ll compare my role to a teacher, as in I’m specialised in educating and empowering clients with the right skills needed to shoot and produce their own video content.

Is there anything you want to change in your job?

At this point, absolutely nothing. I'm enjoying every moment of my job.

However, as we continue to change as a business, we also continue to grow. We are opening new offices across the globe right now so for me, I would like to travel to more countries that we are opening offices in and be able to engage and excite people about video and film all over the world, not just in Singapore.

Which campaign, that you worked on, are you most proud of?

I honestly can’t pick a client campaign, because every Shootsta client has their own unique moments and achievements, and I'm proud of everyone of them.

I definitely enjoyed producing our own Shootsta campaign, a series of videos called ‘I have arrived’ marking the expansion of Shootsta into Asia.

It featured us three amigos, Antoine, vice president of Shootsta Asia, Ben, client success manager, and myself, battling it out in the hot sun, against a tight schedule and getting the parts right to form the funny and quirky videos. Check them out here and here.

Who is someone you want to emulate in your industry?

Christopher Nolan, for sure. His ability to challenge audiences and manipulate time in mainstream cinema is unrivaled in my opinion.

In the office, I am inspired by our fearless leaders Mike and Tim. We have a fantastic team here, and I am just a cog in the wheel. Each person in our company has their own unique talents and skills, such as training, editing, sales, marketing, creative, production and so on.

It's one of the many reasons that make us great! I would love to be able to sit at each person’s desk for a few weeks and learn how they do what they do so quickly. I can learn so much from each and every one of them.

If you weren’t a video trainer, what would you be?

If I wasn’t doing filmmaking, which I’m really passionate about, I’d probably be a pilot. It was my dream job as a kid.

If you think of someone who deserves to be part of this series, please get in touch with Shawn Lim and nominate them. You can read the most recent feature, which looks at the role of a operations manager, here.