K-M filmmakers get real-life lesson with T-Birds promotion

Wednesday at the ShoWare Center in Kent, two unlikely paths crossed in the most entertaining of ways.

A couple of dozen video and marketing students from Kent-Meridian High School sat in the center’s stands that morning to see if their hours of work with the ShoWare Center’s home sports franchise – the Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team – merited top honors with T-Bird management staff.

They were the first crew of high school students to embark on a real-life marketing mission with the hockey team, creating from scratch promotional television advertisements designed to show the excitement of T-Bird games.

Sweetening the contest between the teams of student filmmakers were the awards offered by T-Bird office: game tickets and gift certificates for the top three teams, and the opportunity to see their work air before the crowds at the T-Birds’ game Friday night.

“It’s a good, real-world experience for them,” said Ian Henry, the T-Birds’ director of media and public relations, who led the students on a tour of the ShoWare Center before their videos were aired for the first time on the center’s big screen, and the winners announced.

Henry added that’s the kind of involvement the franchise likes to see.

“It’s important to the T-Birds to establish another link with the community,” he said. “It’s also something that gives real-world experience and maybe will bring in some more fans.”

The excitement was palpable among the students Wednesday as the videos were aired on the giant scoreboard screen. They saw all 10 videos – the last three of which had been selected as the winning films. They applauded – sometimes hard, sometimes politely – as the credits came up at the conclusion of each.

As the video rolled, it was obvious the hours of work the young filmmakers put into their production – some of it lugging cameras and film equipment onto the ice, as the T-Bird players slammed pucks and carved ice.

“The scariest part was putting the camera on the ice,” said Maria Molina, a sophomore in K-M’s video production class, noting teacher Michael Transier warned them beforehand that the cameras were worth a couple of grand each.

“We didn’t want to get in their way,” chimed in Molina’s teammate Sherilyn Eng, a senior, of working around the hockey players.

The other major challenge, according to students, was the time frame in which they had to work.

Once the marketing students developed scripts for the commercial, the video production students had more or less just a day to get their filming done. Added to the challenge was the fact they were doing it in the middle of finals week.

“We only had one day to do it – 6 and a half hours we were here,” said Henry Li, a senior.

Then they had the time crunch – the videos were due a mere day later.

But the students pulled it off with aplomb, not to mention getting a real-life chance to put their skills to work and build rapport with each other.

“With this, they had a real-world opportunity,” said K-M marketing teacher Megan McGrath Morgan, who with fellow K-M teacher Michael Transier, who led the contingent of video students, orchestrated K-M’s involvement with the T-Birds on the project.

“This group learning experience unites the kids and gives them a bonding experience,” she added.

You can see the results of their efforts by either going to the Thunderbirds’ Web site at www.seattlethunderbirds.com, where the 10 videos are listed, or by attending the T-Birds’ game Friday night, where the top three videos will be played on the big screen of the ShoWare scoreboard. (This issue of the Kent Reporter, although it is dated for Saturday, actually comes out Friday for a number of Reporter readers.)

The game starts at 7:35 p.m. against the Moose Jaw Warriors. Tickets are available on the T-Birds Web site (www.seattlethunderbirds.com), or at the ShoWare Center box office.