MBU Video Production Students Getting Real World Experience

All eight students in the Advanced Post Production class of Alonzo Medcalf, assistant professor of communications and multimedia production, agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment, because the call time for each video interview was an hour before the scheduled interview, while the actual interview may only last a few minutes, not to mention the hours of editing each student spends on each of the six interviews.

These eight students had the sole responsibility of directing, producing and editing six interviews with MBU faculty members to use as promotional videos for the fourth annual Faith and Research Conference, which was held April 7-8, 2022, in the Pitch Room of the Learning Center as well as the Performance Hall of the Dale Williams Fine Arts Center.

The students were evenly split into two production houses the students named, one called Apex Productions, including Austin Richards, a senior broadcast media major from St. Louis; Demingo Loggins, a senior broadcast media major from St. Louis; Alexander Brown, a sophomore broadcast media major from St. Peters, Missouri, and Christian Backa, a senior broadcast media major from Kerava, Finland. 

The second team, Quad Productions, includes Kamryn Bell, a junior broadcast media major and criminal justice minor from St. Charles, Missouri; McKenzie Sheehy, a communications major from St. Louis; Jazz Terrell, a senior double major in communications and broadcast media, from Indianapolis, and Kaylee Ascher, a senior broadcast media major and journalism minor from Moscow Mills, Missouri.

Medcalf pitched the idea to Dr. Allin Means, director of the Communications Department, who directs and organizes the conference each year, with the idea of his students producing the videos for the FRC this year in order to help them gain confidence in themselves to produce professional video within the safe learning environment of MBU.

“He actually came up with the idea and I agreed it would be a good idea and a great opportunity for our students to get some experience in a professional environment of videography,” said Means, professor of journalism and communications in the Fine Arts Division.

Medcalf said he wanted to give his students a taste of what it would be like to do video production in the real world.

“I want them to understand how a production happens and functions and works together,” said Medcalf, “but I want them to get out of it is more of a desire to do it in the real world. I don’t want them to just learn about it, I want them to take what they’ve learned and to put it into action and say, ‘I can actually do this as a job,’ and I want them to be more inspired and have more courage to say they can actually do this in the real world.”

Each production team had a dedicated director, producer, grip, gaffer and camera operator for each video shoot and then rotated roles for the next interview, so all of the students in the production group obtained experience from each role.

“I think it’s just a great opportunity for students, within a certain controlled setting, because we’re all very understanding, and everyone the students interview are willing to work with the students and help them with these projects,” said Means, who approved the finished videos. “But at the same time, it is absolutely real world exposure. This is not just a lab kind of controlled exercise that we do in class that never leaves the room. This is an exercise where these videos will be seen by hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, not only this year but each year moving forward, because the conference will continue to grow and it will continue to use these videos moving forward.”

Apex Productions was assigned to interview Guy Danhoff, assistant professor of health and sports sciences; Dr. Keith Beutler, professor of history, and Delicath, associate professor of educational research.

Quad Productions was assigned to interview Dr. Larry Smith, director of interdisciplinary studies and director of MBU Honors; Dr. Amy Harrison, assistant professor of higher education and program director, and Dr. Jason Jordan, assistant professor counseling education.

The very first interview recorded, conducted by Quad Productions, was with Jordan, whose interview answered the question of the importance of this year’s Faith and Research Conference theme, “Mental Health and the Wholeness of Creation.”

“Working with the students for the Faith and Research Conference was very fun. They were very professional, and very prepared, and capable, and overall it was just a joy,” Jordan said.

Not all of the interviews went as smoothly, however. Both Apex Productions and Quad Productions had to re-record three of the interviews due to improper exposure or composition.

Each of the faculty members generously agreed to re-shoot the interviews and understood the need for the students to correct their mistakes.

“It was excellent,” Buetler said when asked about his experience working with the students. “I appreciated the follow-up they would do and we even did a little bit of reshooting, I think because of the exposure of the images. And I just appreciate perseverance and staying with it until we get it right.”

Before production began, each student production house was assigned to meet with Means as the client, who gave both groups of students his vision for the promotional videos and hoped to give the students the creative freedom to produce the videos based on their own skills and vision while also making sure the videos stayed true to the level of professionalism the videos would need to be for the scholarly Faith and Research Conference.

“There’s nothing more real world than producing videos for a real world conference like this. This is the fourth annual Faith and Research Conference and each year it continues to grow, and so when students can be involved with the video production side of things, with the videos being used for promotion for the conference, there’s in turn a direct correlation between the work that they do and the success of the conference, because these videos will be used to help us promote the conference and get the word out on the conference,” said Means, noting that early presentation proposals had him projecting this year’s conference would double in size and participation from last year’s conference. “So it’s a direct reflection on them, you know, the quality of the work that they do, and the professionalism with which they carry themselves, and the end results of the videos they produce are a direct reflection on the students, they reflect directly on the Broadcast Media Program, the Communications Department, the conference itself, and really the university as a whole. So really, there’s a lot riding on these videos.”

The students and Dr. Means met and decided on a prompt for each interviewee to address in their interview, so that each video would be concise, thorough and different from each other.

Bell, who hopes to produce crime documentaries after graduation, said, “My favorite part about this assignment is being able to work with more equipment. I’m very used to just using a mic and a camera, but now we’re using lights, multiple mics, multiple cameras, and just learning how to use multiple things like a real life production.”

This learning experience will provide the students with experience of working as a group, just as a production house would run in the professional world.

“I’m hoping that they will get a real world live production, this is how a big group works together. They’ve spent a lot of time working as an individual to shoot projects, but I want them to work in a group and I want them to go through the phases of being a director, being a producer, being a grip, being an actual camera operator,” said Medcalf, who hopes the students will grow from this experience.