Following BSC's A/V Nerds

Bismarck State College’s Public Affairs department is multifaceted. Nearly everything on a wall or screen on campus originates in the department. The work Public Affairs does promotes all aspects of the school except itself. Their work is visible to all, but they remain hidden.

This is a given of any production team. Their job is to put the spotlight on others and let the end product speak for itself. What does a day in the life of the department look like? Who are the people who make the content that form people’s perspectives on BSC?

There is a part of Public Affairs that Digital Media and Video Design Manager Dusty Anderson refers to as “the AV Nerds.”

“We do a wide variety of things. We do most of the internal video marketing, which includes social media and the ads in house for Youtube: broadcast television. We livestream all the athletic events, we livestream external events, we do the State Board of Higher Ed meetings, and we handle all the AV tech, pretty much on campus.” Anderson said.

The department is currently working on a social media campaign for BSC’s Sonography Program. Employees Levon Shulz and Garrett Froelich went over to the Health Sciences building to ask members of the program questions to help inform prospective students to better understand what it fully entails. The answers will be turned into social media Q&A videos.

Media Production Specialist Cole Bernhardt scheduled a shoot for a future advertisement with a former student. Bernhardt led the shoot with the pair in a supporting role. The shoot started in the Mystic Media Studio and would later be set in the performer’s house with her kids. Anderson came to supervise the shoot in the studio after a morning of routing BSC’s The MYX to the speakers in the ATC. When the performer arrived, she read aloud a transcript saying how easy the college has made it for a mom to come back to school. Once they got everything they needed in the studio, they packed everything up, bringing two cameras, a slider, and a big light.

The team arrived early to the subject’s house and decided to drive around a little in the Mandan neighborhood she lived in. On the drive they saw a megalithic structure made out of giant snowballs done by local elementary school students. When they returned, it was time to shoot. Bernhardt described how it was working with kids. “It’s always challenging anytime you’re trying to do anything productive around children because they march to their own drum…but it’s cool,” Bernhardt said. “I like kids. I wouldn’t necessarily like to work with children everyday, but it’s kind of a fun thing to do as well.”

Bernhardt also explained what it is like to create things when many people see your work, but do not know it is you who made it.

“It is very rewarding. I’ve never been one who has needed recognition or was seeking it…I like validation from people that matters, like superiors, and people who have a stake in whatever project I’m working on…it gives me more enjoyment and satisfaction just to know someone liked what I did rather than specifically know it was mine.”

It is a struggle that all creatives face. Steven Spielberg knows that people have seen his movies and have no idea it was him. Walking through the halls and seeing advertisements, a person forgets that an actual human made them. Even in a short video or a flyer in the bathroom, the person that made it is showing off their talent through an advertisement knowing that the only person it was going to matter to was their boss. Even still, they care what an unknowing thankless viewer’s experience will be while watching it, because it’s still their art and it came from their mind; they fought through the limitations of the form as much as they could, even if there is no recognition waiting for them.