SOC students named winners of 2017 festival of media arts
| March 1, 2017 |
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By Angie Stewart
Seven students and one faculty member from Loyola鈥檚 School of Communication recently won awards from the 2017 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Festival of Media Arts.
Loyola alum Jacob Voss won an Award of Excellence in the Short Form Video Documentary category for 鈥溾�� 鈥� his first professional quality documentary 鈥� which he filmed during a two-week Digital Storytelling course in Santiago, Chile.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 expecting to get an award at all, and so when I did, I was super happy about it, and it really motivated me,鈥� said Voss, who graduated in December with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in Advertising and Public Relations. 鈥淚 want to keep doing it. I want to start making more films.鈥�
Voss鈥檚 documentary details how the burrowing parakeet narrowly escaped extinction, its population in the R铆o Los Cipreses National Reserve growing from about 200 to around three thousand in just a couple decades with the help of the National Forestry Corporation, or CONAF.
With co-producer Carlos Pizzaro, a journalism student at Alberto Hurtado University, Voss spent five days in the Andes Mountains conducting interviews and capturing footage of parakeets.
鈥淚t was something I was passionate about,鈥� Voss said. 鈥淚t was an issue that is relatable to everybody around the world, whether you鈥檙e in China choking on smog, or whether you鈥檙e in Chile trying to conserve this population of parakeets, or whether you鈥檙e in the U.S. trying to make sure that nobody鈥檚 drilling in our natural reserves.鈥�
Much closer to Loyola, senior advertising and marketing student Nikhil Sequeira and graduate students Ashley King, Caitlin Higgins and Hanlin Guo together produced 鈥�,鈥� a PSA addressing Chicago鈥檚 rampant gun violence. The spot won an Award of Excellence in the category Commercial Spots/PSAs under 90-seconds.
It shows a group of seven students who vanish one by one as they walk down a Chicago street 鈥� a visual representation of the CDC鈥檚 statistic that on average, almost seven young people are killed each day by guns in the United States.
The students created the video for their Multi-Media Production class in partnership with the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.
鈥淲e actually got to meet the woman that runs the organization and 鈥� the more she talked about it, the more we thought about things,鈥� King said. 鈥淚 thought it would be crazy not to make something amazing for them that they could show other students and they could share, too.鈥�
The organization posted the PSA on its YouTube channel, but King said she and her group members were surprised that their other project 鈥� a humorous commercial for the energy drink KR膩 鈥� didn鈥檛 get recognition from BEA. That video has garnered 47,000 views on the KR膩 Drinks for Athletes Facebook page.
The judges did have a taste for another beverage: professor Goheen鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� a video that was awarded Best of Competition in the Faculty Television News Feature Reporting category.
The feature shows how two brothers capture fog water to brew beer in Chile鈥檚 Atacama Desert 鈥� known as the driest place on earth.
鈥淚 wanted to do a story about fog water for years and years,鈥� Goheen said. 鈥淚n researching it, I found where these two brothers made beer from fog water, so it was sort of a two-for: the technology of capturing water from the nets from fog but turning it into this unique way to make a living.鈥�
Just getting to the brothers鈥� microbrewery was difficult 鈥� their little village wasn鈥檛 on a map, and Goheen doesn鈥檛 speak Spanish, so asking for directions didn鈥檛 help much. When he finally reached the location where he鈥檇 spend two days filming, he sprang into action.
鈥淭he only day I saw fog was the first day I arrived,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 was smart enough to realize 鈥� I may not get another chance to get the fog or I鈥檇 have to stay days and days and days beyond what I wanted to. So, I shot the heck out of the fog.鈥�
Although Goheen said predicting what exactly will make an entry stand out to the judges is about as difficult as predicting the weather, he and the winning students clearly did something right.
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Capping off the accolades, graduate student Jeff Chow won an Award of Excellence in the TV News Feature Reporting category for 鈥�,鈥� and alum Nicole Wong鈥檚 personal piece 鈥�,鈥� earned second place in the category Interactive Multimedia Project Completed by One Individual.
This year鈥檚 top winners will be awarded prizes during the BEA鈥檚 convention and Festival of Media Arts April 22-26 in Las Vegas, according to the BEA website.