Hot stuff: Flashpoint Academy delivers a baker’s dozen of Howcast videos
Posted on December 28th, 2009 in Emerging Filmmakers, Playlist | Permalink
From puppets on drugs to a colorful Michel Gondry-like sequence, Flashpoint Academy students have been uploading some impressive Howcast videos this semester through an ongoing partnership between the school and the Howcast Emerging Filmmakers Program. The EFP has joined forces with film and television programs at Boston University, Charles Sturt University, and Flashpoint to expose students to web video production, increase student awareness of opportunities online, and provide real-world experience working for clients.
For their second semester producing Howcast videos, their professor, Peter Hawley, chair of film/broadcast, requested we assign his students more challenging topics. His class, “Producing for the Corporate Client,” was given a series of our public-service-announcement style scripts covering issues like How To Know if Your Boyfriend is Abusive, How To Cope with Your Parents’ Divorce, and How To Amend the U.S Constitution.
“The topics Howcast selected were challenging. Students had to stretch beyond their comfort zones in order to deliver a quality finished film. I am thrilled with the finished results. In many instances the students produced not just good student work, but good professional work, the ultimate goal of the class,” Professor Hawley told me.
At the start of the semester, the students were split into teams of four or five. We started with a live video chat where I introduced the topics and Emerging Filmmakers Program (EFP) guidelines. In EFP, Howcast provides vetted scripts, prerecorded voice-overs, a graphics package, and royalty-free music tracks, and we encourage students to be as creative as possible envisioning how to shoot and edit their spots. An additional challenge for these Flashpoint students, aside from the aggressive deadline their professor gave them, was to produce creative videos that viewers would enjoy watching, yet be sensitive to the problems addressed in the scripts. These PSA-style scripts had been set aside for quite a while until we could find the right filmmakers to tackle them. It was a bit of a leap of faith assigning them to unknown student filmmakers — but we were so impressed with how they handled them.
The Flashpoint filmmakers took a refreshing approach and experimented with unique styles. Throughout the semester, we checked in with ongoing video chats and by the course’s end, they turned out the largest delivery of Howcast videos produced by a university class — 13 … and counting!
As Peter said: “What I like about this class, and what I like about working with Howcast in particular, is the fact that students must adhere to the guidelines set out by the client. This not only models the real world, it is the real world.”
Take a few minutes to watch the work of all 13 groups of talented Flashpoint Academy students.
In the batch you’ll see unique editing techniques, an office staffed by stuffed animals, impressive performances, and just the right touch of humor to get audiences thinking.
-Heather Menicucci
Managing Producer, Emerging Filmmakers Program