6.0.A SWCSR 04-22-2021Sherburne Wright Cable Commission
Production Report
April 16, 2021
Before I begin my report, I just wanted to take a moment and preface it with a sincere
thank you from the bottom of my heart. I recently graduated from college, having achieved my
Bachelors in Digital Video and Media Production in just over two years. Additionally, I was also
given the honor of valedictorian and icon award recipient.
While I am very humbled by this surprise, I cannot take full credit for it. It was through
volunteer program that I was able to find my passion. In the no
worked with this commission, the invaluable experience I received allowed me to excel in my
degree. As my skillsets grew, so did the challenges it provided and still provides, which
continues to foster my growth. It is thanks to your work and patience that I can write this for you
today. Once again, I must thank you all and look forward to the future ahead.
Production Update
Big Lake Memorial Day Program
While the COVID-19 pandemic may have thrown a wrench into some of our annual
traditions, t.
This socially distanced Memorial Day Program allowed us to record the event, therefore
providing the public with a safe way of viewing
channel, and shared online via a social media link.
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Delano Senior Awards
Every year, Delano High School holds a ceremony to honor its seniors with awards and
scholarships. While the awards ceremony was unable to be held in person, this provided SWTV
with a unique opportunity. Not only did this act as a new type of programming for the cable
channel. It allowed me to test/improve my lighting techniques, multi-camera setups, and
Facebook/YouTube premieres. This feature allowed the prerecorded video to come across as if it
were recorded live and gave the community the ability to interact with the post. It also provided a
sample and set the framework for our outreach to the nine school districts in our ten cities.
Elk River Graduation
Spectrum High School in Elk River was our first
graduation ceremony of the year, and I believe
-ever (at least to my knowledge in my
nine years with the commission). While the school
had already fully made plans for an outdoor
graduation. A request came from the community for
the event to be filmed as attendees were limited to one
vehicle. There was also a potential need for sound
equipment. So, I loaded up my car with both a pair of our portable Bose systems and two
cameras. In the end, the speakers were not needed; however, the cameras were, and the school
was able to set me up right in front of the action.
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Rockford Graduation
Rockford High School was another
district able to take advantage of our camera
systems. They held another outdoor event
and had set up a large stage for a drive-in
style graduation. As I stood in the parking
lot, I was surrounded by hundreds of cars.
One by one, they would drive up and walk
across the stage for graduation. We had
three cameras on-site, a static wide shot, a
close-up camera next to it, and one on stage.
This allowed each graduate to have their special moment, even if COVID had taken away a
traditional graduation.
Delano - Graduation
Having
premiering slightly less than a month later, having
learned a various degree of tricks and newfound
efficiencies from the senior awards. I was able to
improve on both the quality and speed of this
production. However, one is truly never done learning,
put to use on all production since.
The only exception to the above was
of work to this day. Some of you may remember
seeing it from our past meetings. Two fellow
students, a 17 Hour production day, and
$25,000 worth of personal/college gear created
a minute and 40-second piece that has been seen
over 4,000 times! While this time was donated
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and recorded 15 days before any of these virtual graduations were even
include it in the final cut with those same lessons learned being applied to the recent museum
projects and future city projects.
Rockford Movie in the Park Highlights
While SWTV is already well known for setting up the large movie screen in coordination
with our cities, I wanted to take this a step further and had an opportunity to do so at the
Rockford Movie. Having brought my
gimbal and camera (previously talked
about in my last report), Bill allowed me
the opportunity to step away and capture
some candid B-roll while he finished
setup. The outcome was a short social
media clip highlighting the event. Not
only did this help connect the community
during these uncertain times. It also gives
us material to use for promoting next
years movie in the park.
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Delano Wright County Forums
While COVID-19 continues to effect the world, society marches on, and so did our
ed city hall four
years ago when I last recorded it). The
decision was made to move everything to the
assistants beyond the usual recording, given
the lack of a sound system. After a trip to
Buffalo for the sound system and another for
the portable system. We were officially ready
for our first forum of the year.
Elk River Dirty Fire
While I was not involved in Elk River -production phase, I covered
their training, as our friends at Elk River TV could not make the house fire. I wanted to include
this one so everyone knows our wide range of productions; if this gives you any ideas, reach out!
Elk River Church of Cash Concert
While the majority of concerts were canceled this year, Elk River was able to resume its
series later in the summer. While college got in the way, I was able to get excused and make this
concert! We had two volunteers and three cameras with the portable system. Having been my
first concert as your production coordinator, I learned a few things to make the next one better.
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Dassel Coronation
With the cancellation of large group
gatherings, festivals, and parades, many of the
royalty programs found themselves put in a
was able to crown new ambassadors. Using our
portable system and cameras, I could set up
directly on the field and capture those special
moments.
Buffalo Movie in the Park Highlights
Like
once again had the opportunity to capture
some b-roll. However, this was one of the
first few times with the brand-new projector.
While Bill and I figured out how to adjust it
to the screen size, the sun decided to set.
Thankfully, my camera and lenses are
designed to capture low light and while not
perfect given the environment. I believe the
results speak for themselves.
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Delano Candidate Forum
Like the Wright County Forum, except being at city hall and reusing the previously
designed graphics with some tweaks. This was just another one of our specially covered forums.
Maple Lake Candidate Forum
We reused the previously mentioned graphics and tweaked them for the needs of Maple
Lake. We then filmed their local mayoral and city council forum.
Buffalo Candidate Forum
similar to its standard set,
Buffalo opted to host via a zoom call, unlike our other forums. This could be accomplished
thanks to the new AV Bridge equipment that links the computer feed to our tricaster.
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Big Lake Candidate Forum
After adapting our graphics set, I loaded up the portable systems and headed to Big
auditorium. With , we were able to record their forum and had it playing that
evening after a trip to city hall.
Delano Christmas Tree Lighting
The Delano Chamber of Commerce held its annual Christmas Tree Lighting. Although,
given the state of the pandemic, unlike previous years. This one was done quickly and quietly,
without allowing a crowd to gather. While the tree lighting was a lot shorter, it meant a lot to the
community, and SWTV was right there to help film and produce it.
Delano Light the Night
Introduced and kicked off at the
tree lighting, Delano light the night was a
large number of lights set up down at the
park. It would be lit every night from
5:00-10:00 pm and ran from the end of
November through early January. While
the mission was to bring some Christmas
spirit and hope to the community. It was
such a hit that they are already planning to
make this a continuing tradition.
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Cokato Museum Project Update
As touched on in my last report, the Cokato Museum project originally started as a way
to promote the Akerlund section of the museum. After being put on hold, per the Museum
s request due to COVID-19. We got the project moving again and expanded the scope
by using already recorded material to create additional promo pieces. While we recently got
another round of interviews in and spliced up the previously recorded ones. We have two left,
one with whom actually met Akerlund himself. Afterward, it will just be a matter of working
with the material to push out several clips.
Dassel Museum Project
Word of the Cokato promos made it to Dassel, long before a request was
made. Taking what I learned from doing the Cokato project, we started Dassel off with a day of
B-roll and a sit-down with their Museum
Director. While I was able to piece together a
promo with the B-Roll. The staff is working to
next. Once we get those interviews in, we will
be able to start merging b-roll over the top.
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Delano
At the end of November, I received a message from Delano City Staff, Santa Clause was
coming to town and hoping to generate some Christmas cheer. After a few ideas were
Needless to say, the convertible ride was a success, and Santa was able to greet several hundred
children across town.
Buffalo Kites on Ice Promos
Reusing the material captured last
year, both the original footage and the
original three types of
videos and repurposed the one for
these videos are broad in style, some
being longer, some being shorter. The
statistics from these videos on social
media will help me narrow what
performs the besthelping me better
cater to other events such as movies in the park, concert promos, city festivals, and so on.
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Monticello Community Center Promo
Yet another new type of video production for me, Monticello, recently installed a new
system that lets its user choose
Community Center will control what classes are schedule for now. They wanted the public to be
aware of this new feature. The current plan is to create a short interview and a short promo to
grab people for this and look
forward to learning the marketing side of video better.
All Cities Sump Pump PSA
The sump pump PSA, mentioned
by Brad during our meeting in Cokato. As
, many of you know, when sump
pump water is drained into the sewer
system. The city treats extra water, which
raises the price for everyone, treating
groundwater that is arguably already
clean. To help get the word out as to why
With some stock footage I pay for and
some ex
footage for. While I have a long way to
go in mastering wording and will need
I look forward to
like this in the future.
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Cokato Fire Station
While the COVID-19 pandemic
continued to flourish, it became apparent to
the Cokato Fire Department that they could
th
not celebrate their 125 anniversary as
planned. The Museum director had already
planned a surprise exhibit, and decided to
add a historical video for them. Our work
on the Akerlund Documentary became
paused as we switched gears to do a doc on
nd
, it will be
th
. This hour-long doc
will feature narrated history starting from its formation in 1896 through the 1970s before
switching to taped interviews from its current firefighters. It will cover various topics from
This project has led to a lot of growth in lighting, color, and interviewing. As I
interviewed, you can see the lighting gradually improve with some significant changes applied to
(Uncolored-Flat Profile)
Buffalo Strong Response (Allina Health)
Following the tragic event in Buffalo, I wanted to step in and do my part to help support
the community. So, I reached out to Laureen Bodin, who quickly arranged a meeting with some
prominent community leaders. Together we were able to record and release some words of
encouragement to
the community.
The video now sits
both on our
YouTube channel
and on the front
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page of the Buffalostrong.care Website.
Buffalo Kites
Touched on earlier in my report, we now
have the results of the promos. While the goal of
any promo is to promote, I was not fully prepared
for the videos to go vertical. On the SWTV
Facebook page alone, the data shows we reached
almost 6,000 people
complete data from other pages. I can still see
enough to calculate nearly 12,000 views, which means we likely met an even broader number.
The hope would be to use footage capture at your local city events (movies, festivals, etc.) to
promote/grow attendance in the future.
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and the -40-degree weather that day. There were
fewer kites and attendees than hoped. Thankfully, after fighting some equipment freeze-ups and
dead batteries. The bigger kites took flight later in the day, and I still managed to get some nice
footage.
Maple Lake Parade
Last year, Maple Lake was one of
the first SWTV events canceled when the
lockdown went into effect. We had actually
just finished unloading the trailer and were
on our way back to Buffalo when the call
came out the event would be canceled.
Nonetheless, this year even a pandemic
s
ion. However,
instead of the business driving their floats
through the town, to comply with state
guidelines. Parade attendees would drive past
the user of our trailer, it provided me a nice
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opportunity to try a different approach. I
instead walked the route with my gimbal
to create a candid recap of the event and
material for promotion next year.
But fear not, we were still able to
capture the infamous puppies who
usually walk the parade route and pose
for us.
Maple Lake Coronation
Due to the pandemic and written in bold on my parade notice. The Maple Lake
ambassador program was disbanded due to a lack of candidates and support. However, as later
discovered while walking the route. A different group restarted the program as Royalty rather
than Ambassador. After a quick dash to Buffalo and a quick setup as doors opened. I was able to
capture the coronation.
Buffalo Employee Recruitment
Finally, still in the early stages of post-production, the City of Buffalo reached out to
create a recruitment video for potential candidates considering applying to the city. This is also a
good sample of new color, camera, lighting, and interview techniques.
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celebrations and concerts, dprojects. While I
plan to supply SWTV with its usual quality and quantity of programs when it comes to concerts
and sports. I also plan to continue improving our production quality while still maintaining
efficiency. As I learn from each production, I hope to pass those lessons/benefits off to you,
whether in the form of enrollment videos for your schools, economic development videos that
promote your city, or PSAs about a new water treatment plant. I hope SWTV can be your one-
stop spot for various high-quality productions, especially now that we own a drone that I will
soon be licensed to fly.
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