Tatiana R: She jumps from editing in Santa Cruz, to interning in New York, and now she's taking San Diego by storm.

Bob Hoffman Video Productions is the definition of a book that shouldn’t be judged by its cover. When I first arrived at the company, I thought the off-white walls and small cluttered reception area slightly resembled a regular office building. But a second glance told a different story. On top of the scattered paperwork covering the desk, next to a large basket of Bazooka Bubble Gum, sat an avalanche of equality stickers, film awards and other random items. Towards the back of the room sat another, bronze colored film award. After looking at it for a moment, I noticed that there were several stacks of business cards, one with the words “Tatiana R., Corporate Production Manager” printed on the front.

Tatiana stepped out from her small office opposite the receptionist’s desk. Her hair was pulled back into its usual tight, brunette-colored bun. She wore a pair of ironed black slacks and a maroon button-down shirt. Upon seeing me, she smiled and immediately stuck out her hand to greet me. Her friendly demeanor always made me feel welcome and excited for work. I followed her into her recently cleaned office, where I began the interview.

As I asked questions, Tatiana continued to answer emails from clients and vendors. She never intended on being a production manager. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, Tatiana decided to keep close to home and go to school at UC Santa Cruz, where she studied to be a film editor. After graduating from college, she decided to go test the waters of her field, and went looking for an internship. After weeks of searching, she came across one in New York, where she worked as a production manager’s assistant. After her internship, she left New York and headed west to sunny San Diego. She found Bob Hoffman Video and decided that it was time she tried her hand in producing. She has been working for the company for almost five years now.

“I never thought I would stay in San Diego for so long.” She claimed, continuing to work diligently on her emails. “To be honest I was only planning on being here for a year or so, but somehow I ended up staying. I still think about moving back to Santa Cruz, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do, I like it at Bob Hoffman but I don’t feel like I belong in San Diego.”

-Why did you decide to come to San Diego?

I came to San Diego for job opportunities. I wasn’t planning on staying for long, I just wanted to get some more work experience and I thought that San Diego sounded like a good place to come to. I really didn’t think I would stay this long.

-Why haven’t you moved back to Santa Cruz?

I like it at Bob Hoffman Video. Bob and Tara, (Tara Hoffman, Bob’s wife who also works there) are both from Santa Cruz, so I feel at home here. I just never imagined myself living in San Diego. I can’t really see myself getting married and raising a family in San Diego, so I think I might move one day, but I’m not sure.

-Why Bob Hoffman Video?

Bob Hoffman video was the perfect fit for me for a lot of reasons. Bob and Tara, (Bob’s wife) were both from Santa Cruz, they both went to UC Santa Cruz like me, so it was sort of felt like home. Plus, I really like the small-business/family-vibe here. My internship in New York was also a smaller business, so that might be while I feel comfortable here too.

-How did you find out about the internship in New York?

I had studied film (editing) in college, but I knew that taking college classes and actually being in the field were two different things, so I knew that finding an internship would be a good learning experience. So in my search, I found out about the internship in New York. It was a smaller company, which I liked, so I decided to try interning there. They actually made videos similar to the ones at Bob Hoffman, so it was actually a really good fit.

-What was your internship in New York like?

Nothing like yours, (laughs). I sort of played the assistant role, so I did a lot of coffee getting and copying. I did get to go on the occasional shoot as an extra set of hands, which taught me a lot. I didn’t get to experience the “film” side of the film business as much though, which might be part of the reason why I’m a production manager now, (laughs). It was a good learning experience though, I’m glad I did it.

-What was your mentor like?

My mentor had a really similar, well pretty much the same job that I have now. She was a production manager like I am. I remember that when I was working for her, I kept thinking, “Why is she having me do this?” or, “Why is she doing that? What’s the point?” It’s funny because now that I am a production manager, I am starting to understand why she did certain things or acted a certain way. Like, if I saw her filing something in a specific way, I might not have gotten why it was so important to file everything the exact same way. Now, I understand why it’ so important to file everything, and really everything she did makes more sense to me now. I’m pretty much doing the same things that she did anyway, so I guess I would understand why she did things that way, (laughs).

-What is you position exactly?

I am the corporate production manager for Bob Hoffman Video. It’s my job to schedule shoots and decide which projects have the highest priority. I handle all of the budgeting and billing for the corporate videos, so accounts payable and accounts receivable etc. I also check films to decide where final edits need to be made, I talk to the clients about what they want, all that good stuff.

-What are corporate videos? Is there a difference between a manager and a corporate manager?

There is. A manager manages everything in general, whereas the corporate manager manages corporate videos only. Corporate videos are videos that we make for businesses and other professionals. For example, if somebody wants us to make a commercial for them, or a video brochure, those are both corporate videos so those would go through me. We also make social videos which are things like wedding videos and mitzvah videos, but Amanda, (Social Video Producer) is in charge of that.

-Did you decide to be a producer because of your mentor, or were there other deciding factors?

I think I became more interested in producing after my internship in New York. When I came to San Diego in search of a job, I remember hearing about Bob Hoffman Video, and that they were looking for producers. Since I had previous experience with working with producers, I decided to go for it. I always liked math a lot anyways so becoming a producer made sense to me. Plus, I think in the end producing was just a better fit than editing.

I finished writing down her final words as she continued on her emails. After observing her work habits for a while, I felt amazed by how she well she could multi-task. I said thank you and left the office quietly, heading in the direction of my desk where I started working too. While working, I thought over the interview. I had learned a lot about Tatiana in the short time that I had been at Bob Hoffman Productions. I learned about her transition from living in Santa Cruz, to moving to the fast-paced city of New York, then heading back to the west coast to live in San Diego. I learned about her transition from editor to producer, and I several other things as well. As I worked quietly, I couldn’t help but think that her ability to work without stopping and her ability to easily adapt to any situation was amazing. I scolded myself for sounding cliché, but at that moment, I couldn’t help but hope that one day I could be both a businesswoman and person like her.