Jake Smucker and Aaron Kingsley inspecting an Ash tree

The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) awarded two Goshen College students second place in the instructional/educational video category at their annual Media Arts Festival. Chau Bui, a senior from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Jake Smucker, a senior from Newton, Kansas, won the award with their four part series called “Goshen’s Urban Forest”.

The “Goshen’s Urban Forest” series was created for the Goshen Parks Department and was based on research commissioned by the Goshen Tree Board. FiveCore Media worked very closely with City Forester, Aaron Kingsley on the videos. Kingsley was the point person throughout the whole project and provided his insight and expertise on Goshen’s tree population. The intent of these videos are for public education and outreach. The series is comprised of four videos, which promote the value and benefits of Goshen’s trees. The highlighted topics include the ecological, economic, social and aesthetic values of Goshen’s diverse and immense tree infrastructure.

Vibrant foliage in downtown Goshen

Production started in the summer of 2014. FiveCore staff seniors, Benson Hostetter and Jared Zook, were the primary videographers for the project, spending the summer months shooting in various parks and urban areas throughout Goshen. Seven community members were interviewed for the videos, including business owners, Tree Board members, college students and educators. Taylor Stansberry, producer at FiveCore Media, wrote the scripts for each video.

“This was such a fun project to work on. I learned a tremendous amount about Goshen’s tree population and its history as the Maple City. We were very fortunate to have a beautiful autumn this year. The colors created a beautiful landscape for us to capture on camera,” said Stansberry.

Editing started in the fall. Bui and Smucker were faced with the task of organizing footage and piecing everything together to create a unique narrative for each video. Their work wasn’t done after the four videos, however. They also edited a short version, which condensed the content down to just 3 minutes, as well as a full version, which featured all four videos for an in-depth look at the value of trees.

Fall colors on Goshen College’s campus

“The video series was great to work on as a videographer because of how easy it was to get beautiful shots. The size and overall variety of the tree population gave bright colors that just popped on screen. As an editor, I don’t think I have ever had the opportunity to work with such amazing cinematography. It was one of my favorite videos to work on and I’m excited that we got the recognition that we did for the finished product,” said Smucker.

The BEA Media Arts Festival has more than 1,300 entries and is open to students from all colleges and universities in the nation. Prizes will be awarded during BEA’s annual convention on April 12-15, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Watch the award winning series here: https://vimeo.com/album/3322366