Field Notes: The Media School Travel Blog

Today marks day six of eight of our alternative spring break trip to the Mississippi Gulf Islands National Seashore.

The week has gone by fast, as each day has been packed full with activities and work to finish the videos we are producing for the national park. We have been exploring different areas of the park to collect footage and interviews to use for the promotional videos that will be published on the park’s website and social media pages.

This morning we met with the park’s director of communications, Brent Everitt, to get feedback on the rough cut edits for the six video projects we have been working on throughout the week. All nine students on the trip have exhibited exceptional skills, as we have conceptualized, filmed and edited six promotional videos in just over three days. We have all been able to lean on the skills we have picked up at IU, but applying the lessons we have learned in the classroom to produce a tangible product for a professional client has definitely been a challenge. Producing content in a professional setting is a lot different than producing content for a grade or even just for fun.

This week has been especially useful, because we have been able to absorb the directions and ideas that were given to us by the client and use our own creativity to produce content. Finding that sweet spot between our own creative vision and what the client wants has been an interesting field to navigate. We took the critiques we got this morning and made some quick edits to our videos this afternoon.

The weather today was especially fabulous, so we used the free time we had in the evening to visit the neighboring town of Ocean Springs to have dinner and enjoy some time on the beach. We have all been working nonstop pretty much all week, so having some time to take a breath was nice.

Tomorrow morning we get to present our final products in front of the park staff, and after that we have one more day to enjoy Ocean Springs.