Students within Cogswell College's innovative MediaWorks program were recently hired by organizers behind two TEDx Conferences to develop and produce original, short animated audiovisual communication projects promoting those two events.To promote the TEDxVail (Colorado) event on January 8, 2016, MediaWorks students created the conferences official audiovisual trailer. Under the direction of members of Cogswell's faculty, which also included industry professionals, students had the opportunity not only to work with a real-life client but also to follow the production pipeline of an advertising agency. From formulating concepts and creative briefs, through pitching proposals and storyboarding, to production and post-production, MediaWorks students worked through the processes -which included several client meetings and revisions -- systematically and professionally, under strict deadlines.
The TEDxVail project had a unique challenge in store for MediaWorks students, who are well-versed in standard production processes, but were expected to stretch the limits of their creativity for the trailer. These students were charged to produce an audiovisual piece that would not only be trendy and original, but would also organically express TEDxVail's central theme, Naturally, while tactfully navigating the clients specific preferences.
MediaWorks students working on the TEDx projects learned how less is more, by taking a minimalist approach while executing a complex production. The two competing teams within MediaWorks had frequent video conferences over Skype with their clients in Colorado and Alaska. They experienced how a fierce - yet friendly - competition offers its own challenges and strategies.
The TEDxVail project was completed on schedule, and culminated in individual client presentations by various MediaWorks team members. According to one of the students, The most unexpected takeaway from the process was how much a convincing and persuasive presentation can influence a clients final decision. TEDxVail chose their official trailer from two production teams' works and from eight music composers original scores.
To view the TEDxVail trailer, please see:
TEDxVail CoOrganizers Kat Haber and Corinne Hara worked closely with Cogswell MediaWorks students from January to May 2015 to produce this first ever TEDxVail Trailer. Haber, TEDxVail Founder, CoOrganizer, Curator, said, The substantial creative effort from Cogswell's skilled MediaWorks students inspired a trailer we are all proud to share, truly an idea worth spreading. Thanks to Cogswell's Julius Dobos and Anthony Dias for their inspiring vision to pair up TEDxVail with Cogswell. Given that Cogswell students are based in Northern California, and the fact that many of them had never visited the Rocky Mountains, they were stretched to dream up imagery and sounds they might find in real life while playing in Vail's ski area, forest, tree tops, and rivers. We appreciated Cogswell students' sincere attention to detail and fresh perspectives. They listened carefully and created wildly. With only photographs to design the adventurous treatment, they produced a trailer of immense imagination, which we will share with our local community and globally. The end result truly sparkles!
After learning about TEDxVails satisfaction with the MediaWorks production process, and viewing the completed trailer, the organizers of the TEDxSanFrancisco event also commissioned MediaWorks students to create a trailer promoting their event, which was held on October 29, 2015. The unique challenge for MediaWorks students involved in the TEDxSanFrancisco assignment was to create a trendy audiovisual piece under an extreme deadline of just four weeks from concept to delivery. Given that events theme of 1 Day 2 Remember, and the character of the TEDx brand amplified by San Franciscos image, the keywords for this project were Cutting Edge.
The TEDxSanFrancisco MediaWorks team realized early on in the process that the often-used phrase cutting edge can be extremely hard to conceptualize and implement in style. While the organizers provided feedback on the concepts to the Art & Animation side of MediaWorks from Vienna, Austria, the Digital Audio Production side of MediaWorks was split up into individual freelance producers, thus creating a creatively constructive and challenging environment for these San Jose, CA-based Cogswell students.
In addition to creating an out-of-the-box trailer under a super-tight deadline, MediaWorks students - in the following weeks --also produced two dozen audiovisual speaker introduction pieces - one for each speaker of the TEDxSanFrancisco event. For this, MediaWorks students had to research each speaker's area of specialty, topic of talk, and personality, and then create an energetic 15-second piece that would express these aspects in the style of the overall event's main trailer. This very complex task required lots of analysis, critical thinking, and focused implementation.
The TEDxSanFrancisco promotional trailer and speaker intros were extremely well received at the event, during which several MediaWorks students also worked behind the video mixer, completing the project - and their portfolios - within a live production event setting.
To View the official TEDxSanFrancisco trailer, please see:
To view one of the many TEDxSanFrancisco official speaker videos on YouTube with a short MediaWorks introduction, please see:
Julius Dobos, Distinguished Lecturer, Co-Founder and Audio Director of Cogwell College's MediaWorks program, said, I cannot name an example other than MediaWorks, neither in the U.S. nor beyond, where college students regularly have to solve non-traditional scenarios that come up in the middle of tight-deadline live projects, and work through them with real-wo
