Hey there, I’m Kacey Vereb!
(pronounced like “cherub,” but with a “v”)
As a child, even before I learned to read, I loved books. Flipping through the pages of a picture book, my eyes taking in all the colorful illustrations, I would imagine my own story and recount the tale to a captive audience (my parents). Maybe it’s more accurate to say I’ve loved stories before I even loved books.
Fast forward two and a half decades and I’m still telling stories. But now, rather than ripping off children’s books, I’m meeting people who are passionate about advocating for others, and I get to use their stories to inspire others.
But before I talk about the work I’m currently doing, I’d love to share a little about the path that led me here. My first experience with filmmaking was in college (if you don’t count the montage videos of sleepovers and beach trips I made in middle and high school). A friend and I produced a documentary about the experiences and day-to-day life of a Sudanese refugee family whose father was in hiding overseas. The months spent working on this film were some of the best months of my college career. Being invited into this family’s life and gaining their trust meant the world to me. This experience affirmed what I had been thinking since the start of my college career—video was how I wanted to share stories with the world.
After graduation, I found myself working in youth ministry at the church where I grew up. Not at all what I expected to be doing, but I experienced the growth that can happen when you push yourself outside of your comfort zone. I also managed to find ways to continue storytelling that were outside the confines of my job title, such as creating social media videos to promote student events, shooting a mini-documentary while visiting our mission partners in Thailand, and operating a camera when we started streaming our services online due to COVID-19. It was also during this time that I started wedding videography, and learned the joys (and woes) of being the sole contributor to a project from beginning to end.
For the past two and half years I’ve worked as a video producer in the pharmaceutical industry, specializing in real-patient testimonials. Some of the brands I’ve worked with are Astra Zeneca, Alexion, Regeneron, and Takeda. I’ve had the opportunity to meet some of the most incredible people through this job: patient ambassadors who are suffering through incredible health challenges, but also freelancers and crew I work with as I travel across the country to produce these projects. Through this job I’ve been mastering project management as well as on-site execution of the actual production.
I truly enjoy all aspects of video production. Logistics and planning are my love language. There is a certain kind of thrill that comes from planning each hour of the day, checking off tasks on the to-do list, having control over all details of a project. But I also love the challenge of finding solutions when things inevitably don’t go as planned. There is a beauty in this balance: the balance between vision and sight, preparation and flexibility, what we intend and what unfolds.
While being a producer satisfies my desire for order and perfection, I’ve loved the moments I’m behind the camera, too, as they’ve allowed me to use my creativity in a different way. I get excited to set the composition of the frame, excited for those moments when the light or the movement of the subject looks even better than I imagined it. And I love thinking through the myriad of ways I can use images to tell a story, uncovering which way of telling it will be the most impactful.
Since that initial documentary, I’ve been fortunate to work on a variety of projects: weddings, nonprofit campaigns, small business branding, pharmaceutical testimonials. I’ve played the part of producer, scriptwriter, director, videographer, art director, and editor. With each new role, each new project, I’m so grateful for the opportunities to challenge myself and improve my craft. And because I look at a project from the lens of a producer, a director, an editor, and so on, all at once, it allows me a unique perspective and the ability to produce a greater product overall.
Well, thanks for stopping by. I hope we get to create something meaningful & beautiful together.