WMU News

Communications students produce award-winning video

March 2, 1999

KALAMAZOO-- More than $100,000 worth of new, state-of-the-art video editing equipment in Western Michigan University's Department of Communication has paid off for four of its students who recently won an award for a video they produced.

The students, under the direction of Dr. Nancy Cornwell, assistant professor of communication, produced a promotional video for NBD Mortgage in Portage which won "Best Video of 1998" at NBD's Midwest sales rally in Grand Rapids. The video was selected from videos submitted by other NBD Mortgage offices in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Florida.

NBD approached Cornwell about developing a video for its new mortgage approval service. WMU seniors David Diffenderffer of Flushing, Mich., and Yen Kew and Victoria Nelson, both of Kalamazoo, volunteered for the project along with Chang Chien King, a junior from Kalamazoo. Working with NBD, the students developed the concept and scripts and then shot and edited the video.

"We are so thrilled," says Sue Duer, NBD mortgage loan representative and one of the coordinators or the project. "We gave the students the project, but they came up with the concept and just ran with it. They were so easy to get along with and absolutely professional. It's a really cool video."

With funding provided by the WMU Provost's office last summer, the communication department purchased a digital video editing system and eight Super-VHS cameras. Cornwell says that without the new equipment, students would not have been able to produce the award-winning work.

"With the new equipment, they can do work that is as professional as what you'd see on television, " says Cornwell.

Media contact: Marie Lee, 616 387-8400, marie.lee@wmich.edu


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