background.
The Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Communications Media Department provides a multitude of media production teams, clubs, and jobs. The department runs The Swoop summer Internship program for graduating students, where my team and I work to create media for the local community. The Communications Department was founded in 1973 and exists within the university’s College of Education and Communication. Several talented media professionals run the department and teach the courses. The department has several vital media production assets including our fully-equipped broadcast television studio and radio station. The television studio features a Tri-Caster broadcasting system, three professional newsroom cameras, and a variety of customizable set pieces. The station is carried locally by Comcast and has a reach of more than 200,000 potential viewers, nearing the Pittsburgh area. In addition to the TV Station, the department runs WIUP-FM, a 1,600 watt radio station the serves the tri-county area. As one of the only stations in the area, WIUP-FM caters to more than 100,000 listeners daily. Both of these facilities are available to the student body and to The Swoop for any potential productions.
services.
The Swoop is a fully-equipped professional production team capable of generating multi-media projects in various styles and genres. The internship site is selective with choosing which students are brought on, creating a competitive application process that produces the most qualified media professionals. The standard of professionalism set forward allows The Swoop to offer a range of media services including photography, graphic design, video production, podcasting, and much more. The Swoop generally works on non-profit and community focused projects. Some notable clients have been the Indiana Regional Medical Center and the Blairsville Underground Railroad History Center. As a university entity, The Swoop has access to most of the equipment and studio space provided by the Communications Media Department. The team often records video in the television studio and the advanced audio recording lab. The team has been able to launch a podcast for the Indiana Regional Medical Center, which releases on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube monthly.
corporate image & advertising.
The marketing strategy for The Swoop follows the lead of the university as a whole. Much of the graphic design work and imagery follows the same color schemes, font styles, organizational methods, etc. The Communications Department also develops their own unique logos for its’ various organizations. The Swoop has it’s own logo alongside other university branding that it is associated with. Below, there are some examples of logos designed for IUP-TV, WIUP-FM, and The Center for Media Production and Research (CMPR).
the crew.
The Swoop has produced content with various sized crews ranging from small to large. The size of the crew is dependent on a couple variables including projected work load and the crop of applicants. Last summer, we had a relatively large crew of about 14 people. This summer, we operated a crew of four people including myself. Working within a small crew allows for each of us to focus on aspects of our projects that correlates best with our chosen skillsets. For example, Lucy Panian would handle most of the audio engineering, recording and mixing, while I handled most of the videography and video editing work. Levi Donaldson worked as a photographer, graphics artist, and special effects artist. Anthony Benequista served as our marketing coordinator by developing promotional campaigns and strategies for our clients; he also became quite proficient in photoshop and would assist Levi in designing graphics and logos. Dr. Mark Piwinsky served as our supervisor, offering advice and wisdom of the professional production world along the way. He helped us stay organized and kept direct lines of communication open even with hard-to-reach clients. Our team implemented a divide and conquer approach to many of this summer’s productions. This helped us compartmentalize and stay organized, which ensured a smooth working environment. Additionally, the environment for critique was efficient in that the other crew members could review and check the other areas of the projects they hadn’t yet worked on. This allowed for fresh eyes to give unbiased critique on work they might not have directly generated.
Click on the images below to view my team’s resumes!
reports & budget.
Projects are typically undertaken on a volunteer basis for educational purposes and developing hand-on production experience. Because of this, The Swoop does not have any flat fees, rates, or charges of any kind. Most of the work produced is heavily community centered, often involving non-profit or academic entities. Occasionally, a client might find a small budget to act as a stipend or payment to the crew, though this is not the stand nor is it expected. Additionally, this means that nearly all of our productions are made without any kind of budget, unless one is provided by the client.
Miles Majercsik 