Mobile production lab a key tool in
providing hands-on experience
MANCHESTER,
Tenn. — This year’s Bonnaroo
Music and Arts Festival will be memorable for MTSU student Erin Nicole Moore
for two big reasons.
Not only is it her first
Bonnaroo, but she’s spending it as the student in charge of logistics for the
$1.7 million Mobile Production Lab, the multimedia nerve center of MTSU’s
College of Media and Entertainment, deployed at the festival’s Who Stage.
Moore, 20, a video and
film senior from Franklin, Tennessee, was a freshman when MTSU began its unique
partnership with Bonnaroo that allows students to get real-world production and
journalism experience — and college credit — at the festival.
“Everyone was talking
about how great of an experience it was to go,” Moore said. “I knew if there was
one thing I could do while at MTSU, it would be to take this class.
“Now, as a senior, I
finally get to experience this multi-cam rite of passage.”
Assistant professor
Robert Gordon, video and film program coordinator for the Department of Media
Arts, said he’s relying on Moore to make sure students are where they need to
be and are doing what they need to do.
“Erin has proven herself
to be energetic, organized and reliable,” Gordon said.
Moore is among several
Bonnaroo rookies on Gordon’s crew, the next generation of video and film
students to carry forward the partnership with the festival.
Using feeds from multiple
cameras, the crew captures on video select performances on the Who Stage, a
venue Bonnaroo devotes to new and emerging artists. The work in the truck for a
live show is fast-paced, always frantic and not for the faint of heart.
“We have big shoes to
fill from the crews from the past few years, but we are more than willing to
put our best foot forward to learn – and have fun along the way,” she said.
Gordon, however, pointed
out that there’s a lot of talent in this crew, among them:
• Robert Bagwell, a key
member of EMC Productions, the student production team that recently received a
national honor for their work for MTSU Athletics. Bagwell was working video
production at the CMT Awards in Nashville until the day before Bonnaroo.
• Zach Carpenter, another
EMC Productions student, also joined the Bonnaroo crew after working production
this week for VER Tour Sound, a Nashville-based company.
• And Jessica
Mathis, Jessica Rigsby and Leayn Moyers, some of Gordon’s most advanced
students with deep experience in sports and concert production.
“This crew is full of
hard-working and talented men and women,” Moore said. “We’re all there to help
each other, work hard and to learn.”
Billy Pittard, chair of
the Department of Media Arts, formerly known as Electronic Media Communication,
said his students “thrive with hands-on, real-world experience.”
“When we can say that
Bonnaroo is our classroom, it shows that we understand the importance of
breaking out of the confines of old-school thinking,” Pittard said.
“This is real. The intensity
of four days of nonstop production takes the experience to a whole new level
for the students.”
And, Moore said, it’s
very cool.
“It’s no secret that
hands-on learning is better than sitting in a classroom,” she said. “I have
such love for live production and there’s nothing better than being able to
refine our skills in the real world.”
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