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Behind the Scenes: Making the IdeaBase Promotional Video: Todd Thomson & John Vrhovnik

Behind the Scenes: Making the IdeaBase Promotional Video: Todd Thomson & John Vrhovnik

IdeaBase management had a goal: raise awareness about Kent State’s student-run agency with prospective clients, while telling the stories of the students and staff who work there. Two talented IdeaBase students came together to make that goal a reality – with a 4-minute promotional video compiled from interviews with IdeaBase employees.

 

Todd Thompson and John Vrhovnik are the two students behind the new video.

 

Todd is an Electronic Media Production major in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and John is majoring in Visual Communication Design. Todd was originally hired specifically to work on the promotional video, but he has now joined IdeaBase as an Account Manager and Videographer. John works as a graphic designer. John and Todd explained what it was like working on the video project.

 

When asked about their inspiration for the video, both Todd and John looked to a number of existing online videos for ideas. Todd says, “I already had a vision for the pace and feel I wanted it to have, but John and I looked to Designspiration and Vimeo just for some ideas to move passed any creative walls we hit on the way to completion.”

 

Todd worked specifically on filming, editing, audio production, and directing. John worked on the layout and flow of the graphical content. John was also featured in the video, displaying some of his hand-drawn lettering.

 

The hardest part of working on the video for John was just getting the project going, while Todd said he struggled at first working with someone from a different major. He also had to change his design process to match John’s expertise and style of thinking. “But, in the end, John taught me so much and he was right all along. His designer’s mindset has taught me a lot about taking my time with a piece and really mapping things out before making a final decision. John showed me it’s best to exhaust all options before making a decision, and it truly creates a beautiful product in the end,” says Todd.

 

John went on to explain, “we both had never made something quite like this, and I am incredibly new to video so at the beginning we were just sort of gathering inspiration, building the concepts on paper and mapping out all the content. As soon as we got all the video in, Todd made all the edits, we picked music, started adding type and it all really just came together quite naturally.”

 

Overall, John and Todd felt they learned a lot from each other. Above all, both students think the new video will be a great tool for IdeaBase. “This video will benefit IdeaBase by not only improving awareness of what the agency has to offer to students and clients, but it will also help show the types of students that work here and how passionate they are about their careers and how much effort is put into their work here at IdeaBase,” says Todd.