Student produced commercials air during nationally televised hockey game with rival Middlebury

By Mike Grace
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Norwich University students showed off their stuff as students produced nationally aired commercials about Norwich University on the New England Sports Network during the Norwich Cadets hockey game against Middlebury College on Jan 22.

Each school was given eight minutes each of commercial time, which was in an agreement with the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC), the producers of the game, and with the New England Sports Network (NESN), the satellite provider.

The student producers, Gabe Burkart, 19, a junior communications major from Northfield, Vt., Chris Brackett, 21, a senior communications major from Los Angeles, Ca., and Chris Pilkington, 21, a senior communications major from Boston, Mass., all had the same reaction of "instant gratification" as they saw their hard work aired on national television.

"We only had a week to do all of this," Brackett said. "but it was a great opportunity for us to show off what we know and what we can actually do down here in the television studio."

The student producers made a total of seven promotional commercials about Norwich, ranging from different sports programs to the history of Alden Partridge. Two additional commercials were produced to promote the upcoming airing of Norwich on the A&E channel and one titled "Thanks Coach" for the Norwich hockey team's Blue Line Club.

The Blue Line Club is a club that supports the Norwich University hockey team. The club members consist of Northfield residents, Norwich alumni, Norwich faculty, hockey players' family members and avid Norwich hockey fans.

"I was very proud the way that Norwich looked," Ed Tracy, the Director of Norwich University Events said. "I liked the fact that we used student voices, and the fact that I can say that our students put this together."

Burkhart and Tracy said that they have received nothing but positive feedback from the Norwich University community, and through this feedback they hope to make this an annual event. "The phone was ringing off the hook at the television studio with alumni even before the game was over," said Burkhart.

"Seeing your work on television makes you realize that all the hard work you put into it is worth it," Pilkington said. "When you look down the road you can say that you have been there, and it something that you can put on your resume. Not many people can say that they have had something actually aired on national television."

According to Tracy, Middlebury College had chosen to fill their slots with no new production and ran eight thirty second commercials that were produced a year ago for a football broadcast. We wanted to have something that fit the program, and the best thing is that it was all done in-house.

"I think that Middlebury had an advantage over us, because they had more 30-second commercials that fit easier into the game time-outs during the game," Pilkington said. "I think that we had a better all around commercials, because we had more of the school in ours than just sports, as Middlebury did."

Norwich wanted to use these commercials as an admissions tool and to promote the up coming airing of Norwich on the A&E (Arts and Entertainment) channel. A phone number was provided for future applicants to call if they were interested in applying to the school, and the date and time of the A&E special was provided for those applicants to watch.

However, even though the A&E commercial was a more effective commercial for the school's recruitment program, the Coach McShane ad could be put up against any other professional ad out there, stated Tracy.

The students used the new digital cameras that were purchased to film and make projects for special events. It was the first time that the cameras were used since they had been purchased.

"The new digital cameras worked great, and the images looked almost like film, which we wanted it to look like," Brackett said. "It's all pretty simple as long as you have good equipment and an imagination."

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