You have heard of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Spike Lee. Awwhhh yes. Some of the best Hollywood movie directors money can buy.
San Antonio also has its own share of movie making stars. They may not be famous, but give them time. Meet Patricia Barrios and Edwardo Rivas.
Patricia and Edwardo are two seniors at the new Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Both are education majors and have a strong interest in technology and communications.
I had the honor of being their college professor in video journalism for the month of July. We slammed a whole semester of learning into four short weeks.
Our mission was to create a video documentary on the history of A&M-San Antonio. It seemed doable, but the big challenge was that Patricia and Edwardo had never filmed, edited or produced any type of video production before.
From the start, they were both passionate about the project. With guidance and direction, they flourished quickly. Patricia embraced the role of reporter, writer and director. Edwardo took the reins as the videographer, editor and technical engineer.
When it was all said and done, Patricia and Edwardo produced a compelling 7 minute video documentary that featured interviews, action footage and written narration tracks.
In fact, the documentary, called "An Inside Look at Texas A&M University-San Antonio," is the first ever student produced video created at the school. So this project is one for the history books.
"I really loved this class," said Patricia, who is a wife and mother of three teenagers. "We hit the ground running and did not look back. I learned a great deal in the short time allotted for this class.
"I never would have thought," she continued, "that I would be the "first" video communications class to produce the "first class project video" in a new Communications department at a new university! I hope we are helping to establish a positive path for future broadcast classes to follow."
Edwardo agreed with Patricia's sentiments.
"The video communications course has been my favorite class I have taken," said Edwardo, who has written and recorded songs for professional artists. "I learned so much in a small amount of time. We are the first students at A&M-San Antonio to put out a video. With Professor Rios as a vibrant and energetic teacher, this course has been exciting and fun."
I was hired as a visiting professor for the summer. The students, staff and administrators of A&M-San Antonio are good people. I look forward to my next visiting professor stint down the road.
In the meantime, check out Patricia and Edwardo's video documentary on my blog. For first-timers, they did awesome! Hollywood, look out!
Texas A&M University-San Antonio Student Video Project (Final Version) from RIO Video Productions on Vimeo.
