Sarah Rowley Adams (née Adams)

Film provided Sarah with a foundation rooted in storytelling and practical film-production skills that she draws on daily as a communications professional.

I chose to major in Film because I wanted to take a chance on my career and I knew studying Film wasn’t going to lead me to an ordinary 9-5 job. Subsequently, my jobs have always been interesting, involving some kind of practical aspect and a degree of travel because of the skills I learnt in Film.

Honours was my favourite year of university. I really enjoyed the small class sizes; I got to know my lecturers and classmates and I remain friends with some of them to this day. In film production the class sizes also meant getting the opportunity to practise skills like directing, scriptwriting, or lighting on a weekly basis.

In my Honours year, I also enjoyed writing a thesis and focusing on one topic throughout the year rather than changing it every week in class, and it was fun to study something I had a personal interest in. Surprisingly, it also really highlighted weaknesses in my writing, presenting, and researching skills and allowed me to hone them. I entered the workforce as a much more capable and confident graduate.

When I finished my degree I got an entry-level job in communications for Trilogy Skincare. People were just starting to take this thing called social media seriously, and Trilogy was looking for someone who had strong writing skills as well as someone with the ability to take photos and create stories out of their everyday business news. Because of my writing and practical skills, Trilogy gave me many opportunities, from filming luxury media famils (familiarisation programmes) in Queenstown to going to Kenya to photograph their relationship with a charity they support.

As the importance of social media marketing grows, more businesses are looking for storytellers who can translate their brands into digital content—images, videos, and websites. I took a digital content specialist job at Yealands Wine where I produced brand videos, executed photoshoots, managed several brands’ social media platforms, and was trained in how to develop websites. This led to my role as communications and digital advisor at NZ Winegrowers. You would be surprised how often I called on the skills I developed from my studies in all my jobs when directing a video or developing a social media shoot.