Dual Pursuits
A UNITED STATES ARMY RESERVE SERIES
3 YEARS | 13 FILMS | 26 SOCIAL VIDEOS
OVERVIEW
Dual Pursuits is a documentary-style series created for the United States Army Reserve, highlighting soldiers who balance military service with successful civilian careers. Rather than treating those two paths as competing priorities, the series demonstrates how the skills, experiences, and perspectives gained in each can strengthen the other.
Over the course of three years, the series grew into 13 documentary-style films and 26 supporting social videos, building a library of character-driven stories designed to humanize the Army Reserve and connect with prospective recruits.
THE CHALLENGE
Military recruitment content has to communicate a clear message while still feeling authentic to the people whose stories are being told. For Dual Pursuits, the challenge was finding that balance — allowing each soldier's personality, career, and experience to drive the story while maintaining a consistent campaign identity and reinforcing the value of Army Reserve service.
Each story also needed to work across multiple formats, from longer-form documentary pieces to shorter social content, without losing the emotional core of the soldier's story.
MY ROLE
As Lead Editor and Motion Designer, I helped shape the storytelling and visual language of the series across all three years. I collaborated on script development and paper edits, helping turn long-form interviews into focused narratives before carrying those stories through editorial, motion design, and final delivery.
In post, I established the pacing, color grade, music, and sound design for each series, creating a distinct cinematic treatment while maintaining consistency across the broader Dual Pursuits campaign. I also developed motion graphics, maintained Army Reserve brand standards, and helped evolve the overall creative approach and visual language of the series as it expanded.
THE APPROACH
The strongest element of Dual Pursuits was always the soldiers themselves, so the editorial approach centered on letting their experiences lead.
Rather than building the films around heavy messaging or graphics, I focused on genuine interviews, purposeful B-roll, deliberate pacing, sound design, and restrained motion graphics to create stories that felt personal and cinematic while still supporting the larger recruitment strategy.
The visual system created consistency across the campaign, but each film was given enough flexibility to reflect the soldier's unique civilian career, military role, personality, and environment.
For social, I translated those longer narratives into concise, platform-friendly stories that could stand on their own while maintaining the tone and message of the larger campaign.
THE OUTCOME
What began with the initial Aryiss and Luke films ultimately developed into a multi-year body of work. The strength of those first stories helped lead to the campaign being extended, allowing the team to continue documenting additional soldiers and expand Dual Pursuits over the following two years.
By the end of the three-year run, I had helped create 13 documentary-style films and 26 social videos, establishing a cohesive collection of stories that presented Army Reserve service through a more personal lens.
Instead of simply explaining what it means to serve in the Army Reserve, Dual Pursuits showed how service can exist alongside — and actively strengthen — a meaningful civilian career.