Objective:
- To provide learners with peer-to-peer advice via digital media.
- To encourage learners to engage with the business and enterprise support available to them.
- To provide student and graduate start-ups with experience of communicating via film.
- To support the promotion and development of student and graduate enterprises.
- To enthuse, inspire and stimulate ideas amongst students.
- To bring relevant guest expertise to learners in a flexible and affordable way.
Overview:
Often, one of the most powerful ways to inspire students as to their abilities and potential can be to introduce them to peers who have already achieved success in business. These are people who are just like them; they look like them, sound like them, have studied the same courses as them, and as such, their opinions and advice carry great weight. However, it is not always possible to facilitate such peer-to-peer engagements, or to maintain such relationships after students graduate.
The production of film content can address this. Short films showcasing the start-ups of students and recent graduates, directed at current students and imparting advice directly to them can be a powerful communication tool. Such films can be made for low cost, utilised in a wide variety of ways, and help to engage many students with the wider enterprise support available at their institutions, or with the enterprise elements within their course modules.
Furthermore, the production of such films serves to develop the communication skills of the students and recent graduates who feature in them, helps to build and maintain relationships with these students and recent graduates, and provides a resource which can help them in the growth and development of their own enterprises.
Figure 1: Images from completed films.
Activity:
Planning
- Identify student / graduate start-ups who you wish to feature in the films. These may be found through existing networks, through programme tutors, or through an alumni service at the institution. Contact individuals to confirm their interest.
- Identify a company, individual or organisation to produce the films on your behalf, and supply them with a project brief (inclusive of deadlines).
- To keep costs down to a minimum, and to provide further learning opportunities through the project, this may be set as a task to media / film students at the institution.
- Films needn't be longer than 2 – 3 minutes in length (such short duration helps them to be maximally impactful, and helps to keep costs and production times to a minimum).
- Plan the content which you desire for the films to feature. To do this, you can reflect on what you would want the individuals featuring in the films to say to your cohort, should they be in the classroom. (For example, you may wish for featuring individuals to discuss their own personal enterprise journeys, to discuss how they engaged with enterprise support at University, or with a particular project in their degree studies, or to simply recommend some key advice, based on their own experiences as a recent start-up).
- Produce a simple script / list of questions, and supply to the individuals featuring in the films for discussion and agreement. Supply this to those producing the films for information.
- Liaise with those filming and those being filmed, to arrange filming times, dates and locations.
Production
- Maintain contact with all parties as films are produced.
- You may wish to be in attendance for all filming, to ensure the content produced matches your specific needs (though this should not be essential if all parties have agreed to a clear brief beforehand).
- If those being filmed have not had similar experiences before, they may wish to receive support and advice regarding their preparation and delivery to camera.
- Ensure that all necessary documentation (for example, release forms for individuals featuring in films) are gathered at this time. Your institution's marketing / PR department should be able to assist with this.
- Receive completed digital / hard copy versions of completed films.
Dissemination
- Share content via appropriate platforms. This could include;
- Social media (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook etc.).
- Virtual Learning Environments (Moodle etc.).
- To student cohorts at tutorials, lectures and events.
- You may wish to supply access and permission to the films to the featuring individuals to, for their own promotional purposes, and to disseminate via their own platforms.
Skill Development:
For students / graduates featuring in films;
- Experience of communicating via film, with enhanced communication skills to contribute to the continued growth of their enterprises.
- The opportunity to reflect on their own personal development journeys, successes, failures and learning points.
For learners viewing films;
- The opportunity to gain insight from the experience of their peers.
- Greater confidence in their own abilities and potential.
- A greater awareness of the support available and actions to take in developing their own enterprises.
- The stimulation of ideas for new ventures of their own.
Resources:
- Expert support in filming, editing and producing film content is essential in the delivery of this project, as is the support of student and graduate start-up businesses.
- Examples of films produced at Glyndwr University in accordance with the process outlined in this guide, can be found on YouTube via the following link > https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuqen63XW1XRnepsJzooLJsieB_a_4Cue
References:
- Glyndwr University. Graduate videos - YouTube. 2015. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuqen63XW1XRnepsJzooLJsieB_a_4Cue . [Accessed 07 August 2015].