Hands-on work at music festival a
great resume builder for future grads
MANCHESTER,
Tenn. — As year four of MTSU’s
partnership with the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival closed Sunday, here’s
what it meant for the students at the event, by the numbers:
Multimedia student
journalists covered more than 20 musical performances, plus two comedy shows as
well as produced other news and feature stories for outlets ranging from USA
TODAY Network-Tennessee to NowPlayingNashville.com to MTSU’s student-run
publication Sidelines.
Video, film and audio
students — rotating among 14 technical positions on MTSU’s $1.7 million Mobile
Production Lab — captured 15 concerts, shooting more than 11 hours of
performances on the Who Stage featuring emerging artists.
And more than two
terabytes of recorded media, including raw, high-definition video and
multi-track audio, that will become the core of laboratory work for students in
MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment back in the classrooms.
“Every year, this
partnership becomes more valuable for our students and this legendary
festival,” said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee. “Our relationship with
Bonnaroo provides our students with the kind of real-world experience you can’t
find elsewhere.”
The 50-person crew of
students, faculty and staff only averaged about five hours of sleep during the
four-day event, working in shifts to capture acts and events that went into the
wee hours of the morning.
“The volume of our
student work is impressive, but numbers don’t tell the whole story,” said Media
and Entertainment Dean Ken Paulson.
“There’s also the
immeasurable confidence-building that goes on, plus all the high-fives as they
walk through the crowd with their MTSU gear on."
Associate professor Leon
Alligood from MTSU’s School of Journalism, who helped direct the reporting
team, said, “Each year, Bonnaroo offers our students an opportunity to immerse
themselves in a big-time entertainment event.
“They also leave the farm
with a desire for more. As an educational experience, Bonnaroo can’t be beat.”
Michael Fleming, a
Recording Industry professor who teaches audio production, said covering a live
event, as opposed to a simulated experience, helps students learn how to deal
with the unexpected. For example, he said, students had to deal with a
technical glitch in real time during one show – and keep working without a
hitch.
“The grind of several
days of production is a lot different than one-off events,” Fleming said. “You
learn to deal with unexpected events and how to spring to the task of
troubleshooting.”
But it’s all about the
experience, plus the actual college credit, the students received at Bonnaroo,
said Robert Gordon, a Media Arts assistant professor who oversees MTSU’s Mobile
Production Lab stationed at the festival.
“These four days of live
concerts gave students a realistic, hands-on experience about what the live
video concert industry is,” Gordon said. “This event gives them a great resume
builder for a very competitive, freelance-heavy field.”
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