Patrick Snipes: Project Manager and Editor Extraordinaire

Rachael Brown

UWG alumnus Patrick Snipes has some words of wisdom for current students who are interested in growing their skills to pursue a creative career. Snipes mainly works on managing video projects and video editing.

“Project management is basically the client saying, ‘I need x, y, z,’ and I take it and I direct on who does,” said Snipes. “It is like what graphic designer is going to do it, and what 3D person is going to do it. I am the one who uses the network that I have built throughout the years. I ask people who I have worked with before if they are open to do a project, and assign that to them while giving them the details of the project, deadlines and so forth. Video editing is kind of self explanatory, that’s how I got my start.”

Snipes also explained that his education was important to his success. He still uses what he has learned at UWG to this day. Most of what he has learned has come from experiences he gained after college.

“College was really good at teaching me the bedrock of what I need to know as an editor and producer,” said Snipes. “It was really good at giving me the fundamentals, the very beginning of stuff. All the advanced stuff I learned on the job.

”A large part of the advanced stuff that Snipes has learned has to do with theory, or how visuals can have an impact on the eyes and minds of the audience. In many cases, theory can be almost more important to learn than fundamentals and technical knowledge.

“You can learn all the fundamentals you want, but you need to understand the theory, like ‘how long is too long of a shot?’ things that person to person will think differently,” said Snipes. “But because of some of the stuff that I learned at West Georgia, and I got better with it over time, it taught me those little things that you just don’t learn through just doing.”

For those who are thinking about pursuing a creative career, Snipes encourages students not to make that decision lightly.

“Go into it if you really, really, really want to do it,” said Snipes. “I tell this to a lot of people who graduate college, a lot of people who I graduated with did not continue, and I understand because it’s not an easy field to be in.”

Snipes emphasizes the importance of continuing to learn, even after college. In this way, students who pursue careers in mass communication, and in creative concentrations, must be committed to becoming lifelong learners.

“You have to consistently keep learning,” said Snipes. “College is not the only place where you can learn. Learn from your coworkers. I’m always looking at what the new apps are around, I always go on social media to see what people who are younger than me, sometimes even people who are older than me, are doing when it pertains to certain topics.”