Jesse Desjardins
Transcript: “Working Holiday = Space (Jesse Desjardins)”
Video length: 2:25 minutes
Pleasant, upbeat music plays throughout.
Jesse Desjardins: There is something about being halfway around the world from your home country that pushes you to try new things and experience life to the fullest.
Jesse Desjardins who is shown in a black suit looking out of a high-rise window.
Background changes to a shot of a cityscape. The camera turns towards Jesse; we see his face and he’s smiling.
Jesse: My name is Jesse Desjardins, I am originally from Smooth Rock Falls. I grew up mostly in Toronto. I went to Humber College and Ryerson University. I came to Australia on a working holiday in 2006.
He is now seated in front of the window and begins to talk to the camera.
Photo of a water tank with “Smooth Rock Falls” written on it appears, then a photo of Jesse when he was a child, then a photo of him doing a headstand on the beach in Australia and a last photo in which we see him carrying a baby kangaroo.
Jesse: I am the global manager for social content at Tourism Australia. We are the Australian government agency which is responsible for attracting international visitors.
Back to original shot of him sitting and talking to the camera.
Angle of shot changes, Jesse continues to speak to the camera, but we can’t hear what he is saying.
Shot of Jesse on his cellphone, he is looking at the “Tourism Australia” Instagram page.
Jesse: So my team and I, what we do, is we look after the content on “Australia.com”, on the Australia Facebook page, on the app Australia Instagram profile and Twitter profile. We get about 2000 photos and videos that are sent to us every single day from Australians, from young Canadians who are here travelling and we’re able to use that content to inspire other people to come down to Australia. It’s funny to me because that strategy is almost an evolution of what inspired me and actually probably millions of people to come to Australia in the first place.
Shot of Jesse typing on a keyboard followed by a close up on his face.
Scene changes to a white background where the “Tourism Australia” profile picture appears; it is a kangaroo’s face. The profile picture is next to the Facebook logo. Under the Facebook logo it says search: “australia.com”. The Facebook logo then slides downwards and is replaced by the Instagram logo. Under the Instagram logo it says “#seeaustralia”. The Instagram logo is then replaced by the Twitter logo. Under the Twitter logo it says: “@australia.”
A collage of images of Australia cover the screen and there is a slow zoom out.
Shot of Jesse sitting and talking to the camera.
Shot of a hand taking a photo of a beach with a cell phone. To the right of the phone is a white tab that says: @twsbisuals Hamilton Island, QLD.
Shot of a white surface with sunglasses, a button with I love Oz written on it and a boomerang. Instagram photos pile on top of each other in the middle of the surface. Instagram photos start piling to the right and the screen shifts right, revealing a starfish at the bottom of the screen. Photos pile to the right again and the screen shifts right again. At the top of the screen is a camera.
Shot of Jesse speaking to the camera.
Jesse: Thirty years ago you had the “Shrimp on the Barbie” ads and the “Crocodile Dundee” movies with Paul Hogan and the way we’ve been able to recreate that on a much bigger scale now is essentially millions of people being able to act as spokespeople for the country.
Frame switches to a photo of Tourism Australia brochures from the 1980s. Jesse flips through it showing the content of the brochure.
Shot of Jesse speaking to the camera.
Shot of a video on Facebook from Australia.com in which a baby kangaroo gently jumps into a bag being held open by a set of hands. Zoom to the likes section to see there are 1,573,158 likes.
Jesse: I’ve had the chance to work on some pretty incredible projects since I’ve been here. Probably one of my favourites has been what we just did recently around the Sydney New Year’s Eve celebration.
Shot of Jesse talking to camera.
New shot of the Harbour Bridge in Sydney at night with boats passing by at double speed.
Shot of a girl catching a wave on a surfboard. This same shot is seen being projected on one of the pillars of the Harbour Bridge.
Jesse: It was an incredibly complex project, like lots of moving parts; we were trying to do something that had never been done before and everyone kind of had the spirit of just kind of giving it a go. I think the perception a lot of the times are that a working holiday can be a waste of time or can set you back in your career plans but based on my own experience that’s actually completely the opposite.
Shot of the girl catching a wave. She is now surfing the wave. The shot breaks up into four panels of different scenes. In the top left panel is a park scene with pugs walking on the grass. The top right panel shows the same girl surfing. The bottom left panel shows a person skateboarding. On the bottom right panel is a giraffe eating. The four shots we see then appear at different intervals on the pillars of the Harbour Bridge.
New Year’s Eve fireworks are shown at the Harbour Bridge.
Scene changes to a photo of people having a picnic in a park with a view on the Opera House, followed by a photo of Jesse holding a large lobster, followed by a photo of a man walking on a rocky beach.
Scene changes to a video of a person in a helicopter flying over the Whitsundays.
Jesse continues to speak to the camera.
Jesse: For me it was really a pivotal moment in my career because I think most Canadians, you go to college, you go to university, you get a job right away and you rarely have this time in between to kind of really define who you are and have that space to do so.
Photo of an office with three monitors and a great view of a city, followed by a photo of a group of people working together on their laptops in a circle, followed by a panoramic view of a city.
Shot of Jesse speaking on his cellphone.
Back to a shot of Jesse speaking to the camera.
Jesse: And look I’m a little bit biased but I think one of the best places to do that is here in Australia. Australia’s place in the Asia-Pacific region at the moment is really a fascinating one. I mean there is so much happening here.
Photo of an office.
Image of three friends sitting looking out on the ocean, followed by an image of a poster, followed by an image of two people putting photos on a wall in an office.
Jesse: I feel pretty lucky that I have my Canadian and Australian ties, and I get to really enjoy the best of both worlds.
Background changes to a photo of a Canadian passport with a sketch of Jesse sticking out of it follows.
Jesse is standing behind a kangaroo. Both the kangaroo and Jesse are facing the camera.
Jesse: The biggest piece of advice I think I can give to someone who is thinking about doing a working holiday is to really take this as a platform for the next big thing in your career. If you can take the best of what you learn back to Canada and be open to new challenges and opportunities, I really do think brilliant things can happen.
Shot of Jesse speaking to the camera.
Scene changes to a video of Jesse on a quad, followed by a video of a seal swimming in the ocean, followed by a time-lapse video of a cruise ship arriving in the bay next to the Opera House.
Next is an image of a person standing in front of a projection screen with the image of Luke Skywalker and Yoda from Star Wars, followed by an image of a man walking on a deserted road next to the ocean, followed by a selfie of Jesse in front of another photographer.
Shot of Jesse speaking to the camera.
Shot fades to a white background. “International Experience Canada” slowly appears on the white background and is then replaced by the “Canada” logo, which is then replaced by www.canada.ca/iec-eic