Storytelling and Documentary Project Assistant

University of Wisconsin–Madison; Madison (WI); Hybrid; USD 29,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Wisconsin–Madison seeks a Storytelling and Documentary Project Assistant to help capture, edit, and craft narrative pieces from AI-related activities.

You’ll shoot, interview, transcribe, and contribute to story planning, delivering finished clips and notes within tight timelines.

Qualifications

• The work you have already shot matters more here than your major or your year.
• You have shot and cut pieces where a real person’s story develops on camera; two or three of those tell us more than gear or follower counts.
• Journalism, communication arts, film and digital cinema, and anyone else with the work to show. No computer science required.
• Federal Work-Study award is required for this posting.

Responsibilities

• Record sessions as scheduled, including a student cohort and related events.
• Run the room quietly, manage on-camera presence, and notice when a human story is developing.
• Within five days, deliver raw footage, transcript, three to five captioned clips, ten stills, and a notes page.
• Help identify how to shape the story and which angles to pursue next time.
• Attend story planning with the team and research ideas that matter beyond UW–Madison.
• Support turning footage into press-ready notes and potential coverage angles.
• By mid-November, cut a rough 8–12 minute episode.
• Review published pieces and note audience reception.

Skills

Camera operation

Interviewing

Storytelling sense

Listening

Transcript/captioning

Education

Journalism

Communications

Film & digital cinema

Tools

Descript

Google Drive

Job description

Storytelling and Documentary Project Assistant

Job No: 512124
Division/Organization: Community Partners
Department: WiscAI
Job Type: Local Work Study Student Jobs
Remote Eligbility: Partially Remote
Location: Enter Location
Salary/Wage Range or Lump Sum: $25.00
Job Categories: Interpersonal Communication, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, Digital Technology, Professionalism/Work Ethic, Performing and Visual Arts, Communications, Broadcasting, and Media Arts, Local Work-Study Required Student Jobs

Department Overview

WiscAI is a small AI product studio in Madison. We build working AI systems inside real organizations in Wisconsin: manufacturers, universities, credit unions, athletic departments. The student works with the founder and with the teammate who runs our marketing and business development, next to a team that uses AI all day.

Anticipated Start Date

ASAP

Anticipated End Date (If Applicable)

December 9, 2026. A spring option, if the project continues, is decided in November.

Remote Work Eligibility Detail

Partially Remote

Anticipated Hours Per Week

Minimum: 4 Maximum: 8

Schedule

About 6 hours a week on average, two half-days, up to 60 hours for the fall. The standing session is Wednesday evenings at StartingBlock in Madison; the rest moves with the work. Everything from a session is due within five days. Recording is in person; the cutting and the notes can be done anywhere. If your fall schedule looks tight, say so and we will look at it together before either of us commits.

Number of Positions

1

Qualifications

The work you have already shot matters more here than your major or your year. You have shot and cut pieces where a real person's story develops on camera; two or three of those tell us more than gear or follower counts. Journalism, communication arts, film and digital cinema, and anyone else with the work to show. No computer science required. Fits best a junior, senior, or graduate student with room for two half-days a week this fall. A Federal Work-Study award is required for this posting.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Curious enough to keep asking questions after you get the obvious answer.
• Can tell when something is genuinely interesting and when a company simply thinks it is, and will tell us when you do not think something is a story.
• Comfortable saying "I am a student doing a project, is it all right if I record this?" and meaning it.
• Unassuming in a room and good at listening.
• Writes clearly and without jargon. Captions, transcripts, and a page of notes are part of every session.
• Follows business, technology, media, or the changing world of work.
• Delivers on a deadline without being chased. Five days after a session means five days.
• Uses AI tools thoughtfully, without handing them your judgment.
• Shoots and cuts on your own camera or a recent iPhone. We provide Descript for the cuts and a shared Drive folder.

Position Summary/Job Duties

This fall we are recording what actually happens inside an organization when AI arrives: the people, the arguments, the moment something works or does not. We set the direction. We pick the stories, the sessions, and what we are trying to show. You bring two things we do not have: you know how to handle a camera and a microphone in a room full of people at work, and you have a journalist's sense of how to bring a story to life, who to follow, what to ask next, where the real moment is. The material becomes short pieces for LinkedIn and video, and one rough episode by mid-November. The client is the hero of every piece. Nothing we make should feel like a commercial.

What you will do

• Record at the sessions we schedule. This fall those include a student cohort that meets Wednesday evenings at StartingBlock, and may include the Tuesday builders' group there, the founder at work, client work (only with everyone's signed consent), and the events we host for Madison business leaders.
• Run the room quietly. Read the ground rules at the start, keep anyone off camera who wants to be, and notice when a human story is developing.
• Within five days of each session, hand back the raw footage in the shared folder, a transcript, three to five captioned clips of 30 to 90 seconds, ten stills, and one page of notes on what surprised you.
• Help us see the story. Tell us what is interesting and what is not. Suggest the angle, the person to follow, the question to ask next time.
• Sit in on story planning with our team, and research the ideas we hand you: what makes this matter to someone outside WiscAI?
• Help turn what we record into story ideas for the press: who covers this, and what would make them care. The notes to journalists go out from the founder.
• By mid-November, cut a rough first episode of 8 to 12 minutes.
• Watch what each published piece does: the views, the comments, the conversation it starts.

You will not be easing in. Your first session is a paid trial for both of us, at the builders' group we host at StartingBlock every Tuesday: as early as Tuesday, September 29, and no later than Tuesday, October 13. By the end of that week we have your first clips, and you know whether you want the rest of the fall.

Physical Demands

Sessions are in person around Madison and can run two to three hours. You carry your own camera or phone and a small microphone.

Institutional Statements

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

UW-Madison is an Equal Employment, Equal Access Employer committed to increasing the diversity of our workforce.

Institutional Statement on Diversity

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions