Student assistant production leader Alexis Rios started at twelve years old making and editing music videos with her sister. Since then, her creative journey sparked, and her passion continued to grow throughout the years. Inspired by her high school teacher, Rios resonated working with audio and film production to being a ‘jack of all trades’. Rios is currently working as a student assistant production leader for Coyote Radio at California State University (CSUSB), San Bernardino. She is coming up in her last semester at CSUSB and states everything she’s done at Coyote Radio station has been her favorite part of her career.
Kiara: What do you do as a production assistant?
Alexis: So technically, I’m a student assistant production leader, so as far as production I work with Adobe Audition. It’s a program with the Adobe creative cloud and basically as far as what I do with the radio station with the program I edit some of the podcasts we record in our on air studio and I also write my own scripts and record promos. All of these projects go live on our radio station, Coyote Radio. I basically use that program to edit and master and basically finalize audio projects and also we work with the practicum for the radio station – COMM 2392 practicum. I’m the production leader for a group of students with that class. I’m teaching them the basics and I give them projects to do and put it in Adobe Audition with the students as well.
Kiara: What is it like to work as a production leader?
Alexis: It’s been really… I really like it. It’s been a journey. When I got hired, I got hired by Aimee Alvarez and I didn’t really know about Adobe Audition, the actual program that much. I would say I had little experience with it because I actually had a lot of experience with the video program Adobe Premiere Pro. So, I had only really used it as a plug in for those types of video projects, so I keep learning things every day which is nice and it definitely doesn’t get boring because again, like I’m learning as I go. But I enjoy it a lot, it’s super fun. I have a lot of creative freedom which is kind of the work environment I thrive in. So that’s why it’s been fun.
Kiara: What is your favorite part of working as a production leader?
Alexis: So, my favorite part is definitely like I said, the creative freedom of it and also kind of the collaboration the way the radio station is set up. I can branch out and work with our advertising branch and I can enlist with them and be like hey, can you voice this script that I read, or I can help them with other aspects of their projects or with other students of the radio station in the class. We can collaborate on other bunch of things so it’s nice getting to kind of be like a jack of all trades with all of the different aspects of the radio station, so I have been able to learn on air. I have been able to help my coworker, David Cornejo, with band contracts, and help my coworker Lily with social media flyers and I’ve also helped David with tabling and promotions. So, I guess just getting to learn basically everything in the radio station has been my favorite part.
Kiara: How long have you been doing multimedia production for?
Alexis: So I’ve been editing like I would say like videos like of all aspects for years now. At first, I had an IPad 2 and I used to make the lamest music videos with like iMovie with my sister so that’s when I first started editing videos. I would record her and she would just do whatever and that was when I was like twelve, like early teens. Then in high school, I took a lot of film education kind of classes where we would learn editing and we would have to shoot our own movies and videos and stuff. So, I kind of say I learned almost everything in high school with my one film teacher and he specialized in sound. I would say that’s why I kind of gravitated towards learning Adobe Audition and was open to it because he specialized in sound and music, anything with sound in movies. I guess that is what caught my eye right away when I saw this position. With Adobe Audition, I’ve been using it since I got hired but Adobe Premiere Pro was throughout all of high school.
Kiara: Is this something you do with your major? Like do you want to take this out on the long run?
Alexis: With my major, I do have a film minor and I didn’t want to.. It is film studies but I didn’t really care to write about film I definitely wanted to do like post production. When I first got out of high school, I definitely wanted to specialize in post production and television film media just because I didn’t really care for the ‘movie making’ aspects, just only like editing it. But yeah, my major is communications with a concentration in media studies so I definitely feel like that’s the most niche major and concentration you can do to get into something like this atleast at CSUSB. But yeah I want to do something related with either like PR and media and I would like to use the tools of video and audio production with that or something possible getting hired at a radio station would be cool. I just know that’s more slim with getting hired and getting in with that.
Kiara: When did you decide you wanted to do this for the rest of your life? What do you plan on doing with your degree?
Alexis: I would definitely say in high school when I took a second class with that teacher and it was more advanced, things were getting more harder and it wasn’t just easy anymore, having to learn a bunch of new things and it kind of tested if I want to do something like that. I definitely enjoyed it and knew I wanted to do something with that and when COVID-19 hit, I was still doing projects like by myself even though I wasn’t in class anymore. I would say right around when COVID-19 hit and I still wanted to edit things and even though at that point it wasn’t just for class, it was for hobby and for enjoyment. So I would say around COVID-19 really was when I said I really want to do something like this because I’m still wanting to do this right now.
Kiara: Do you have any hobbies in relation to your career? Any hobbies that are outside of post-production that you enjoy?
Alexis: So what I was talking about with COVID-19 and all that, I specifically used to go on this website and I would take like old movies, music videos and things like that and would make my own little edits. So I would say I like to do that and those were specific things that I would like to edit. So little mini music videos like that and it kind of ties into another hobby that I enjoy doing. I would edit little movies and stuff. I watch a lot of movies and have a long list of movies I like to watch and shows. I also like to listen to a lot of music too.. Almost all genres of music, I’m open to listening to and I have a wide variety of playlists and genres of music on my phone. So definitely listening to music all the time!
Kiara: Thank you for taking the time to be present in this interview and answering all my questions. I enjoyed listening to your production journey from 12 years old to the present.
Alexis: Thank you for having me.
Alexis Rios’ story tells us that with passion and determination, your career can pursue further than you ever thought possible. Starting as early as twelve years old, she found a hobby in filming and editing mini music videos in the comfort of her own home. With the help from her peers, she continued to pursue her passion within her concentration and found what is truly, a successful career that exceeded her expectations and happiness within it.
