SWAG��Ƶ

When Emily Ferrick (Communications, ’19) transferred to SWAG��Ƶ a few years ago, she wasn’t sure what career path she wanted to take.

“I wanted to do something creative, something with my hands,” she said. “I've always loved photography. I wanted to do something involved with that, so I decided on communications.”

Last year, while taking a documentary video course with Joe Habraken, associate professor of film and video, Ferrick became interested in stop animation videos. Her work was recently featured on

“I've seen a lot of stop animation videos on social media, Instagram in particular,” she commented. “Businesses use them for advertising purposes. The videos let the products tell their own story, instead of the advertisers telling the story for the products.”

While Habraken typically teaches longer format documentary video production, he keeps up with the latest trends in social media.  

“We look at digital media a little bit more than a lot of communication degree programs,” he stated. “That's where the jobs are going to be.”

Habraken set-up a small studio and introduced Emily to a software program called Dragon Frame. She then began the laborious process of putting together short videos.

“With 150 frames, you're moving objects 150 times,” she explained. “That equals four seconds of video. It took me about three hours to make a four-second video.” 

Not long after creating her first stop animation videos, Emily began producing some for a company based in Kittery during an internship.

“It opened up this whole other world of possibilities for me as far as a career goes,” Ferrick said. “I’m exploring a couple of different options right now. It's nice to know that I have this skill, and I can take it with me after college.”

Habraken says he was impressed with how quickly Emily picked up the technique.

“She's put together some really nice animated pieces,” he commented. “A marketing company took a look at them and she's talking to them about a position now.”

Ferrick’s success has Habraken taking a fresh look at his documentary video class.

“Next year when I teach that class we'll look at how we can put shorts together that can still tell the stories and also be visually effective,” he explained. “Teach the students to be a little quicker on their feet and produce small, clever pieces.”