The University of Maryland's Media Production Department and their Responsibility in the School's Online Appearance

The University of Maryland's Media Production department is dedicated to exemplify the university online, and provide students with another form of announcements. The crew consists of four individuals who each hold specialized roles in the department. Gabriel Unterman, the Director of Media Productions, oversees the entire department as well as shoots, and primarily edits the videos for the university. Katerina Lambird manages the production crew. Murray Nelson is the director of video, and oversees and manages several of the university's videos that have been produced. Joanna Pearson's primary job is to edit the videos shot and to assist Unterman.  

The eight-step production method of the department

The department follows an eight-step process in order to produce videos. One, they must receive a request in the form of an email, phone call or face-to-face meeting. Two, they must brainstorm the video idea amongst the department. Three, if necessary, Unterman will send someone to go scout the location in order to bring their ideas to reality. Four, he will then assign crew members to go out, and shoot the video. Five, once he receives the video, he goes through all of the footage, and picks out what he likes for the final product. Six, Unterman will then edit the video to his best ability. Seven, he sends off the raw version of the video to Brian Ullmann for his approval. Eight, the video is posted to the university's YouTube account for everyone's viewing. Unterman admits that ideas do not always come easy, so he looks to other sources for inspiration.

In my experience in production, I noticed that there are a few distinct differences between the university's production crew, and other production crews. One is that there is never a dull moment with the university's crew because they are responsible for producing film for the entire campus, and sometimes for organizations off campus. Another difference is that because the video is geared towards a University, their main focus is on education, which limits their creativity. Other production crews have a wide variety of topics that they can cover, but because the crew at our school is stationed on campus, they are expected to produce videos that are geared to that audience constantly. Of course production's job is to be creative within a given situation, but it limits their creativity when they can only produce videos in one subject area.  

Combining all the production crews on campus could improve efficiency 

The Media Production crew is the main form of video production for the University with smaller auxiliary crews within other departments. The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center's production is in charge of developing story ideas, coordinating interviews, planning press access and carrying out videography requests. Terrapin athletics utilizes video for interviews with players and coaches, practice coverage and to provide highlights from the university's games for media outlets. Unterman will reach out to these auxiliary crews for clips or assistance in a video that he has been requested to produce regarding their respective field. Although they are all separate entities, he believes that it would be more efficient for all of the departments to combine forces, and produce videos together.

Not only does the production crew produce videos for the university's YouTube account, but they also stream live video. The Dalai Lama's lecture on May 7th will be available live in the Comcast Center, internationally and on UMTV with the help of the production crew. Live streaming calls for a lot of experience, and planning in order to be carried out successfully. Being able to cut footage live is a big part of it because there are multiple cameras recording at once, and each focuses on a different angle or person. The individual manning the cameras needs to pay close attention to what is going on in the event, so they know exactly when to switch cameras.

I combined my major and my passion in order to maximize my experience

This past semester I spent several months shadowing the department, and have been exposed to every aspect of their production routine. As a Communication major on a public relations track with an interest in production, this experience has allowed me to observe the interaction between the university's production and public relations departments, and proved that it is possible for me to pursue both fields. The production crew worked very closely with marketing and PR throughout the semester as they wrote scripts and planned shoots in order for production to execute the video portion. Without a "production major" at the university, this experience was my only way of pursuing a passion that I may want to develop into a career in the future. From what I've witness, the Media Production department feels the need to produce high quality footage in order to reflect the university as a prestigious institution on the web.

listen to ‘UMD Media Production’ on Audioboo