The task? Take dozens of hours of footage - both interviews and b-roll - and cut a concise, 2-minute story about Jenny Anderson, also known as the Girl of 10,000 Lakes. As an editor, I took the transcripts of the interviews and highlighted the best parts. Then I had to decide: what is the story about? What's the message this should leave viewers with when they finish watching? There was a lot to show and tell here. The message? "Anyone can learn to enjoy the outdoors." Once I had this nailed down, it was a matter of trimming the fat, honing the words down so that everything focused on that message. This is the story of Jenny Anderson, a city girl who learned to hunt, fish, and spend her weekends in an RV enjoying the great outdoors.

A showcase of much of the work I've created over the past few years. My primary responsibility in most of these videos is either editing or motion design, but also includes camera and lighting work, directing, and other facets of video production. Videos range from how-to's and tip videos, to magazine teasers, to interviews. Contact me directly to see complete versions of any of the videos shown in this reel.

This video was part of a series created for Second City Works. The aim was to produce videos that businesses could use to inform employees about common workplace issues, while providing ways to deal with awkward or uncomfortable situations. Coming from Second City Works, the videos needed to be entertaining and filled with humor. We worked with the client, scriptwriter, and designer to craft unique and memorable character designs that could represent diversity in an abstract way, that were charming and could be animated to represent the actions and scenarios that needed to be shown. This project was a collaboration between several editors and animators as well, with shared ideas building off of each other as well as shared animations and tools between the videos to streamline animation and simplify the process.

This music video was created for an independent musician who wanted to go beyond lyric and stock footage videos, but had a very limited budget. After hearing the song, I pitched the concept to the artist; the idea of memories and mementos of a lost relationship slowly disappearing from the narrator's life. With a script and storyboard in hand, we spent a day filming on location, slowly removing each piece of furniture from the room until it was empty. This was also shot with a few white/black/green screen shots to fill in the gaps, especially at the end. I had to push myself into new territory to pull the edit together seamlessly with effects, color correction, items disappearing from the room, adding glares and lights and removing some blemishes from the walls and floor.

Created for Staples Worklife magazine, two IBM data scientists discuss different features, fears, and misconceptions about artificial intelligence.

One of a series featuring 50 different projects selected as the most influential over the past 50 years by the Project Management Institute. This video centers on the Atari 2600, the home video console that changed the direction of modern entertainment.

Tension runs high in the crew of the G.F.S Apollyon when the captain receives orders to fire on a civilian colony in order to contain a mysterious, deadly disease. Credits: CAST CAPTAIN MICHAEL AVERY PAT CHRISTENSON LT. EVANS AMBER DEAN ENSIGN HETERMEYER BLAKE ALEKSIAK LT. CALLAN BRYAN ARNESON EXTRAS DOUG WOLF, JOY WOLF CREW WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY JONATHAN WOLF PRODUCED BY JOY WOLF, DOUG WOLF, MARY WOLF CG SEQUENCES BY JOSH DEAN SET DESIGN BY AMBER DEAN AUDIO RECORDING NATHAN OVITT CAMERA, EDITING JONATHAN WOLF Music and Sound Effects in this video are used under license from the rights holder. Sound effects from freesound.org via users: harpoyume, themfish, swagmuffinplus, 123jorre456, Empty Bell, CGEffex, Chela Sivesta, BranRainey, Woodingp, AGFX, SmartWentCody, soundslikewillem, kafokafo, Glaneur de sons, FlatHill, sandyrb © 2014 Jonathan Wolf, www.futurewolf.com

A co-worker's kid spent the day at the office while his teachers were on strike. He did some research and wrote a story about Alexander Hamilton, and I turned it into a video using his handwriting and illustrations. I also drew Matias and animated him using Adobe Character Animator.