Wesley Kilgore

WESLEY KILGORE Silver Spring, MD-https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesley-kilgore SUMMARY: Passionate, knowledgeable and disciplined producer and writer with 20 years of online production experience. Extensive background in copy editing, video editing, multimedia production, content promotion and journalism. Highly likable, creative, self-driven, solutions-oriented team player. Coordinated live updates from Emmy, Grammy and Oscars red carpets for Time Warner Cable web site. Created web sites for seven Ken Burns films during the last quarter of 2018. TECHNICAL SKILLS: Website management and design: HTML, CSS, XML, Javascript, Wordpress, SEO, social media management as well as various content and workflow management systems such as AEM, InCopy K4, and Craft. Graphic Design: Used Photoshop to create promotional graphics on a daily basis. Proficiency with all Adobe Creative Suite software Copy writing and editing experience for both web and print design projects Video: Transcoded and edited video from HBO, Showtime, AMC, etc, from digibeta tapes into streaming formats via Avid, Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro. Produced AARP Minute video daily with Brightcove Hosting Experience: Hosted and conducted live webcast celebrity interviews for Cool Site of the Day’s Agents of Cool. Interviewed bands for Quincy Jones’ Qradio and Time Warner Cable website. WORK EXPERIENCE: Aquent, Washington, D.C.2019 - 2020 Sr. Digital Producer Contracted to produce all entertainment content for AARP.org and its 38 million members. Produced website for AARP Movies for Grownups Awards. Revived AARP's dormant Music section and produced articles featuring interviews and reviews of artists like Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young. Shepherded articles from first edits through research and copy editing in Adobe InCopy K4 before exporting and publishing in AEM. Improved the quality of our weekly TV and film What to Watch columns by adding trailers and video playlists. Our What to Watch columns were consistently among the most highly viewed articles each week. Produced extensive Latin Music Guide and Hip-Hop at Middle Age features, showcasing video interview, timelines, playlists and essays by about two dozen icons of hip-hop and Latin music. Produced our monthly milestone celebrity birthdays gallery, and wrote obituaries for late musicians such as Ric Ocasek and Eddie Money. Produced and managed the AARP magazine section of our site, which highlighted online versions of articles from our print publication. Gathered images of actors, musicians and celebrities from TV and film studio sites. Used Photoshop to cut out and create composite images of celebs and products for our weekly fashion column. Created AP interactive modules with Embedly for producers to use throughout the site. Used Brightcove to process and publish our daily AARP Minute videos. Checks and Balances, Washington, DC2018 - 2018 Web Producer Contracted with PBS to produce new websites for seven of Ken Burns' films including “Prohibition,” “The War,” and “The West.” Handled all site production including layout, graphics creation, asset management, copy editing, and writing in Craft CMS. Evaluated content from older film sites to determine if it was still relevant and viable for repurposing. Identified and embedded video clips, episodes and supplemental video from Ken Burns films. Gathered and reprocessed images of people and places featured in Ken Burns films. Created sponsor logos for Ken Burns films. Created supplemental material to films such as interactive quizzes and soundtrack playlists to enhance user experience. Transcoded legacy video formats such as flv into more current streaming formats. TIME WARNER CABLE, Herndon, VA1999 – 2016 Senior Producer Used Adobe Experience Manager to oversee the daily curation, integration and promotion of original entertainment articles written exclusively for our website. Fact checked, proofread, edited, reformatted and enhanced articles with embedded video, images, Twitter and Instagram posts. Set the featured article lineup on the Homepage, Entertainment channel and other channels in the website. Used Adobe Premiere and Avid to process videos. Managed editorial calendar for coverage of key entertainment events. Created promo copy, images and video for programs on cable networks such as HBO, Showtime and AMC. Created and produced weekly trivia quizzes with Wordpress, attracting thousands of participants. Used Adobe Creative Suite to create promo graphics for featured articles, polls and quizzes. Identified compelling entertainment stories daily to assign to the writing team. Generated regularly updated analytics for content areas and modified content to maximize SEO potential. Coordinated integration and promotion of live blogging and multimedia from our red carpet/backstage team at award shows including The Oscars, Grammys and Emmys, providing exclusive coverage. Managed partnership/content with Audible, Shockwave, Movielink, AP, CNN, HBO, Showtime, NBC and others. Conceptualized/produced mini-sites for Star Wars and Time Digital 2020 (co-produced with Time magazine). Initiated the first music partnership for the site with HipVideo Promo and conducted telephone and field interviews with musical acts, introducing music videos and widening site appeal. Initiated and oversaw partnership with Real/Rhapsody, generating an additional $160,000 annually. ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE QRADIO, Washington, DC Producer Interviewed and reviewed acts for Quincy Jones' world music Internet venture. Created multimedia and wrote articles from interviews with international reggae and world music acts. Managed site’s Liquid Audio e-commerce store. INFINET / COOL SITE OF THE DAY, Norfolk, VA Product Manager Wrote and produced for Cool Site of the Day and Cool Site of the Year Awards (CSOTY). Scripted the Apple, GTE and People magazine co-sponsored CSOTY Awards. Curated and produced WebPaper (best of Landmark newspapers). Created Live Online (internet’s first guide to live web music events). Picked finalists for CSOTY awards and scripted all of CSOTY '97 awards show at The Fillmore San Francisco. Hosted and produced our live webcast show Agents of Cool which featured interviews with Kevin Smith, Stan Lee, The Beastie Boys and others EDUCATION Journalism, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA AFFILIATIONS/ASSOCIATIONS/MEMBERSHIPS National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Multi-ethnicity in Communications VOLUNTEERING Habitat for Humanity/Restore Montgomery County, MD Montgomery County Senior Connection (board member/volunteer) A Time to Read – Time Warner’s Literacy/Mentoring program PORTFOLIO https://wkilgore.journoportfolio.com/