More than 30 Full Sail University students sat patiently Wednesday morning, ready to receive sound advice and industry tips from Martin Potoczny, a Full Sail graduate and Hall Of Fame 8 inductee.
Potoczny is the founder and CEO of LUXE Creative, a leading creative studio located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that specializes in custom luxury event production and creative brand design.
Jessica Northey, a multimedia content producer for Visit Orlando, and Brett Novak, a self-proclaimed filmmaker, skater and hopeful creator, were also representatives for the Creative Entrepreneur panel.
The panelists went into detail about how they achieved success beyond Full Sail University.
Brett said money wasn’t all he focused on. He said he had to learn how to balance business with his artistry.
After many discussions during the panel, students were allowed to ask questions before wrapping things up.
Potoczny said being young, you should take any opportunity for growth, even the ones you may not like, or the ones that make you uncomfortable, because you learn from them all. Learning what you don’t like is more valuable than anything, he said, to the Full Sail students on hand.
Potoczny left some seasoned experience and wisdom with the Full Sail students who attended the panel. “We didn’t have the technologies such as Google and Facebook when I was in school.”
The world of technology is at your disposal, use it, said, Potoczny.
With all the technology in the world at our hands, there is no reason every one of us cannot be creative entrepreneurs. This panel taught us that starting your own business can be as easy as 1,2,3 as long as you take every opportunity presented to you, use technology, and embrace being uncomfortable.
With the official start of Hall of Fame 8 just two days away, let’s take a look back at how MCBS covered Hall of Fame 7, and give you a taste of what you can expect from this year’s coverage.
At Hall of Fame 7, the Production team was able to cover the live musical performances and even get some interviews with the performers. The team turned into on the ground reporters and talked to students, instructors, and panelists throughout Hall of Fame. These short interviews proved to be a great experience for the MCBS students who were operating camera and sound equipment, and those students who were on camera personalities. The production team put out great content, which gave students editing practice and helped them learn new skills to add to their portfolios.
There was also a Writing team which allowed students to interview other students, panelists, and other guests at Hall of Fame 7. They wrote blog posts about the coverage and get them posted online. This gave writers publishing credits which they may not have earned without this opportunity. The members of the Writing team learned how to conduct effective interviews and turn them into great reads, they learned how to edit writing, how to work on a fast-paced, high energy team, and they experienced what it was like to cover a live event. These are all skills the Writing team will use during the rest of their time in the MCBS program and throughout their careers.
The Social Media team worked around the clock to push content the various teams were producing everyday, they pushed hashtags, and helped all platforms gain followers, likes, and reblogs. The Social Media team worked out of a small room, utilizing Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to push out all the content possible to show people the teams coverage of the event. One of the highlights from last year was when DJ Swivel, a Hall of Fame 7 inductee, reposted an Instagram post from MCBS, and his 40k followers saw our content.
And finally, the Graphic Design team created a fabulous logo, watermark, and even a press pass for the entire program to use. The assets they created were used by everyone in the program. The Social Media team used the watermark on their Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook posts. The Production team used the press passes to gain access to interviews and panels. Everyone in MCBS benefited from the creative pieces produced by the Design team.
Every team came together to provide the best coverage of Hall of Fame 7 that we could, and now it’s time to do it all over again. Each team has their responsibilities in place, and are ready to hit the ground running. Hall of Fame 8 kicks off on Sunday, February 12th, with the Grammy’s celebration. We may not know who is going to win Album of the Year (actually we all know Beyonce is going to win) but we do know that MCBS will be there covering every moment of HOF8, right up until the end.
Is there anything you want us to cover? Let us know by tweeting us @wearemcbs using the hashtag #MCBScoverage!
Platinum Creative - Creating a Logo for Hall of Fame 8
Creating a brand for an event means creating its identity. Platinum Creative was tasked with the challenge to create a logo for Hall of Fame 8 and they knew it had to be special. While we all appreciated the logo for its amazing design, I want to share with you the meaning behind this piece.
The first thing to be determined, was the general theme of the logo – it would all be about connection. The circles in the 8 represent that connection from student to alumni and alumni to school. It represents how this event bridges gaps and brings people together.
The lines in the background continue to play with the theme of connections and the holographic texture inside the 8 is a reflection piece. In the words of Traci Burchard
this texture represents, “The alumni reflecting back to Full Sail as a school.”
I was allowed a rare glance into what Platinum Creative does. With this glance, I understood the pride this team takes in their work. Last month, I was also able to experience my first Hall of Fame and with it, I witnessed how Platinum’s work transcends their office space. Hall of Fame brings together people from around the world to learn from each other and celebrate each other’s accomplishments. Some of us, admire from afar, others interact face to face but most of us dream about becoming the next inductee.
This logo has marked me as a designer and a student. The amount of thought and detail put into it blows my mind. However, what I remember the most was the pride in the team’s voice while they spoke about their job. This logo does represent how the alumni give back to the school but I believe it goes beyond that. In my eyes, this logo will always represent the pride Full Sail has for their students. In turn, this pride becomes assurance for us – the future Hall of Fame Inductees – that we too, can one day reflect our light back to our school.
Want to get your film in a festival? Panelists Eduardo Aguirre, Famor Botero and Priscilla Rojas shared 5 useful tips and their most valuable experiences with the students to guide them towards successful submissions to Film Festivals.
Be passionate
When you are making a film, know why you are making the film, know why the story is so important to be told and tell the story with passion. Gather a team that is also equally passionate about the story. That passion and honesty cannot be paralleled by any other motive and shows in the film.
2. Tell the Story Behind the Story
There isn’t only the movie in the story that matters, the story behind the making of the movie matters just as much. Keeping a record of the behind the scenes stories and sharing them, not only engages the audience, but also makes the story personable. Sharing the personal story that goes into making the film creates a personal relationship with the audience.
3. Press Kit is Important
Most important assets of a press kit are posters and trailers. They should never be overlooked. Posters are the first glimpse of the movie that the audience see. The audience reacts to posters before they even get to the story. The same goes for the trailers. No matter how good the film is, if it doesn’t have an audience, it doesn’t matter.
4. Choose Film Festivals Wisely
As important as it is to get your work in front audiences, it is also important to pick the platforms wisely. Always do research before submitting your work to any festival. It is not only to keep a good reputation but also to stay away from potential scams.
5. Do Not Limit Yourself
Successfully completing a film is a huge accomplishment, but getting into festivals is not the end of the road. No matter how your previous film goes, what kind of response it gets, do not stop there or limit yourself. Give some more and make some more, be out there and do what you are passionate about and never limit yourself.
Pictured from Left to Right: Kathy Craven, Jack Geckler, Tim Naylor, Phil Pallen and Leslie Braithwaite
Life after Full Sail sounds like something that is so far away for some. However, 20 months comes and goes and students will soon find themselves walking out with a diploma being told to “go get em.” But where do you start? Who do you talk to? How do you nail those interviews to avoid living the rest of your life off of ramen and Little Caesars pizza? There’s a panel for that.
Life After Full Sail, moderated by Kathy Craven featured Tim Naylor, Leslie Brathwaite, Jack Geckler and Phil Pallen, and talked about where to start after you graduate.
Leslie talked about how he personally didn’t bring things to the table he “brought the table.” Explaining further, that he never went into interviews asking for a job, but rather offering his services as an audio engineer.
Jack, an animator, discussed the importance of asking for help rather than being proud, because at the end of the day, you’re wasting time and if you’re wasting time then you’re wasting money.
To find more tips and tricks on how to get a job once you're out in the industry and how to make sure you can keep it, check out Full Sail’s YouTube, for those on the edge of graduating.
What are your plans once you graduate from Full Sail? Let us know and follow MCBS on our Facebook and Twitter @weareMCBS!
Platinum Creative has been a part of Full Sail University for about 20 years. As a fully-functioning creative team, everything creative about Full Sail comes from them and Hall of Fame is the team’s favorite part of the year.
Hall of Fame is a large event and its planning initiates as soon as the previous one ends. With that being said, we questioned, “How does a relatively small team put together such a massive event?” Their answer is always: teamwork. At Platinum, everyone is encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and help any branch that needs an additional set of hands.
“It is like a band. We know all the instruments, to make sure things get out the door.”
-Diassey Linares
Senior Web Designer
While we’ve highlighted a lot of the creative work, we haven’t spoken much about all the logistics behind this event. Every purchase made goes through this team and has to be approved to ensure staying within budget. Every camera, t-shirt, rental, and even packs of gum has been approved and budgeted. Additionally, if a team requests more swag for the students, Platinum has to find other areas in which the budget can be cut to stay in the green. Let’s take a moment to appreciate how massive this single job is! Everything on campus has been reviewed and approved by this team months before the event begins.
In addition to branding and budgeting, the team also has their hands on many other tasks before HOF even begins. Their process starts with analyzing and understanding their target audience. Once this is accomplished, the brainstorming begins. Branding starts to take place and a style guide is created, bios for all 400 guests are written, memorabilia is collected and new awards and activities are created and planned. There are many pieces to this puzzle, but the team clearly states that it is all about understanding the event’s theme and vibe, it all stems from this understanding.
Platinum had all hands on deck for the past week and they have loved it because they are so close to the event.
“The reason we are all so close to this event in addition to it being beautiful and an amazing experience for our team is that, this is our team. We started Hall of Fame 1. Traditionally, there’s an events department in a company that puts on an event this large but there isn’t really one here so we are doing that and we have a lot of support from the event’s manager in education department that puts together all of the panels and reaches out to the speakers. Everyone is carrying a bulk of a workload to put this on and if we are talking about people not knowing what Platinum does is the fact that there is not a Hall of Fame department. There is not a department of people that put on events of this calibre and coordinate with everybody. It’s educators doing double duty as far as, ‘I’m going to teach but I’m also going to figure out how to live stream all of these panels at the same time so all of my online students feel engaged. I have to teach during the day but at night I will run camera for you.’ We all come together and put this thing on and that’s what makes us all so emotionally invested.”
-Sari Kitelyn
Director of Project Development
We all strive to find a job we love but this team has created theirs. While we think back on our Hall of Fame 8 experience, let’s take a moment to feel grateful for all the work that has been put into it. Platinum Creative, instructors, alumni, guests and even students worked around the clock to make this week possible. It is truly a privilege to be a part of the talented Full Sail family.
While there might not have been any panels, Monday was still a very active day! One of the best events was a tricycle race during the Interactive Creative Challenge. This took place in front of building three, the way students were smiling and genuinely enjoying themselves was really quite a show.
Everyone always talks about how busy they are and this was something that allowed us to have a fun day and be able to kick back while enjoying Hall of Fame 8. Getting to have real carefree fun is rare. “A bunch of people fell and would run over their phones. One person ran over their phone, lost their shoe and kept going and ended up winning,” said Alicia Deshield. This just proves that Full Sail students do not let anything get in their way!
What was your favorite activity and what did you get out of the activities on Monday? Tweet us @WeAreMCBS using #teamwork
The first day of Full Sail University's three day Hall of Fame 8 event was kicked off by a Career Networking Event, if you’re wondering what a career networking event is, it is an event where employers come to network and recruit students and alumni. This year was filled with some amazing opportunities for all Full Sail students, companies included but not limited too Izea, Rifle Paper Co, Digital Brew, Warner Music Group and Universal. Full Sail even set up a meet and greet panel with alumni and hall of fame inductees, Stephen Beres, Culley Bunker, Troy DeVolld, Jonathan Mayer and Phil Pallen.
When I walked in I knew I immediately wanted to talk to Phil Pallen, Brand and Social Media Strategist, who graduated with an Entertainment Business Degree from Full Sail. Phil is someone I have recently been researching and wanted to get advice from since I will be graduating on March 3rd. I waited in line for a while but it was worth it. Pallen gave some great advice and was very friendly, he told me “Resumes are dumb” after he said it, he noted it down to say at one of his branding workshops. He said, “it is all about networking and the face to face connection.” After my conversation with Pallen I walked around and connected with other students and potential employers because Phil is right, resumes are going out and networking is becoming the norm.
Be sure to go see Phil Pallen at some of the branding workshops and panels he will be hosting this week at Hall of Fame for some awesome advice! Phil will have two Green Room sessions on Wednesday, February 15th. The first one will be at 11 am and will last until 11:45am. The second session will be at 12pm until 12:45pm.
Make sure to check out the MCBS social media pages to keep up with all the latest of Hall of Fame 8 and tag all your photos and tweets with #MCBSHOF8 #wearemcbs #FullSailHOF so we can connect with you!!
