Spring 2007 - Robert Morris University

The evening was set up just like the Academy
Awards. They had a brief introduction by the emcee,
Tom Bergeron of Dancing With the Stars and America’s
Funniest Home Videos. He introduced each category;
they played the three clips from the contestants. Two
celebrities would come up and they would open up
the envelope; the winners would come up and give
their acceptance speech. All three of us made
the acceptance speech. Dave started us off, then Darin,
and I came in at the end. There were only
about 12 awards handed out. Our category had 80
entries, the most out of any of them.
From what we heard, it came down to us
and another entry. They actually had to go back
and do a revote. The judges were Nigel
Lythgoe, the executive producer of American Idol,
and Sean Callery, the music composer from 24,
and our mentor, Harry Kooperstein.
At the screening the next day, we networked
with the other students who had produced films.
One guy said he might want me to work on one
of his future projects. I had a lot of compliments
on the post-production work. I had a couple
of people ask if we were contracting out to do music
videos, because they were just blown away by
how professional ours looked.
Now that we’re back on campus, I have
professors coming up to me and asking me
what my next project is. They look at me almost
as a peer now instead of as a student. You have
to earn that respect.
I’ve had a couple of different professors for my
video classes, and they give you freedom to do what
you want to do. There are stipulations that challenge
you, but the freedom is there. It opens up your mind.
I spent three weeks in Turkey with Dr. [Jim] Seguin
and Tony Buba, and that was an unbelievable
learning experience. I learned so much and met so
many interesting people – it totally revamped my
way of thinking. That experience alone, something
you can’t get in a classroom – was a life-changing
event. When I came back I was a different person.