To explore the question “What is work in a digital world?”, I created a Hopecore-style video using Adobe Premiere Pro (Adobe, n.d.). I recorded interviews with a Canon VIXIA HF R56 mounted on a lightweight tripod and captured audio using an AT804 handheld microphone connected to a Tascam DR-680 recorder, all set up in a quiet, controlled space.

The final video is formatted in a 9×16 aspect ratio for social media, with the photos that I took in the Peak District images cropped to 4×3 inside the frame, following Brett Albano’s tutorial on Hopecore composition and typography (Brett Albano, 2025).

Since the aesthetic often relies on drone shots to bring movement to the frame, I compensated by adding pan and zoom effects to my still images using this guide (Kingy AI, 2021).

I used “Golden Hour” by Raja Ampat as the soundtrack (Ampat, 2024). While cuts to black are more associated with the hopelesscore style—often used to pause before someone says something unexpected - I used a similar approach here to create space before each response, matching the pacing of the music.

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Captions were styled in the typeface EB Garamond to reflect genre conventions, with live-captioning and selective italicisation &/or recolouring of words to emphasise tone and meaning.

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References:

Photo of a close up of a computer screen with Adobe Premiere Pro on it by Amjith S on Unsplash.

Adobe (n.d.) Professional video editor | Adobe Premiere Pro. www.adobe.com. [Online] https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/premiere.html.

Ampat, R. (2024) Golden Hour. FMA.

Brett Albano (2025) How To Make The Viral HopeCore Effect For TikTok. YouTube. [Online] [Accessed on 30th April 2025] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sjBHkovzgw.

Kingy AI (2021) How to Pan and Zoom Images in Premiere Pro - Ken Burns Effect. YouTube. [Online] [Accessed on 30th April 2025] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMZHGSbKVag.