“MyELS” – Program Experience Promo

ELS needed a flagship video on their main webpage and for social media, that would introduce viewers to the breadth of experience students get while on their ESL (English as a Second Language) program. In addition, they were keen to promote their new student portal which works in web browsers as well as Android and iOS platforms.

At first we thought we’d just pull together existing footage from the many videos I’ve made for ELS over the past few years, but it became clear pretty quickly that  that particular approach would just seem like a bunch of random footage thrown together. To provide a narrative backbone, I created a script of a few small ‘tentpole’ scenes, featuring three actors that would represent an anonymous group of students.

These scenes would facilitate the transitions between the main selling points of ELS (education, variety of location, making friends from around the world, etc) and also hint at the story of a student from beginning (first going to class) to end (after they’ve moved on from ELS and used their English skills to graduate from a US university).

The last element was the use of transitions where the viewer would move into, or come out of various screens on digital devices. This was in response to the availability of the MyELS app and web-based student portal. We wanted to suggest to the viewer that all aspects of the ELS experience can be managed and augmented through these newly available tools that can be used immediately by anyone even before they’ve applied to ELS.

Ultimately, we hoped to convey that the experience one gets through ELS is far more than simply English education.