A Towson-sponsored video addressing emergency preparedness tactics has won an award in a national competition.
The video, created for the Towson University Police Department, recently won a bronze Telly Award in the “Internet/Online Programs, Segments, or Promotional Pieces – Safety” category.
The Telly Awards “honor the very best film & video productions, groundbreaking online video content, and outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs,” according to their website.
The goal of the video was to create a high-definition online video that would explain the proper and safe ways to respond to an emergency on-campus.
The almost nine-minute video is a representation of the Emergency Resource Guide and is available on the TUPD site.
A variety of potential on-campus emergencies are demonstrated, including an active shooter, fire and inclement weather. The proper and safe ways to respond to such events are then discussed.
“The most difficult, and most important step, was not only writing the script, but also deciding what topics to keep and what topics to cut,” producer Ron Santana said. “There were about five video production sessions and the editing was completed over the course of a month.”
Student Samantha Knight and Santana wrote the script, which was derived from the Emergency Resource Guide that the TUPD has online. Santana was the director and videographer, while Knight worked with coaching the talent.
Deputy Chief of Staff Marina Cooper narrated the video.
The team said they hoped that students, faculty and staff would view the video at the beginning of each semester.
Santana has been working at Towson for 16 years within the Departments of Audiology and Dance, and the Office of the President and University Marketing, and produces the “TU in 2” series, streams events like commencement to the website and manages Towson’s YouTube channel. This is the first media contest he entered while at TU.
Santana said he had known about the Telly Awards and other media-related competitions for years, but never felt that he had a video strong enough to enter.
However, the emergency preparedness video, with the help of multiple departments, “really came together in all of the right ways,” he said.
“This is the first award of this nature that anyone in my department has won in at least five years,” Santana said. “I am very excited about this. Additionally, this was created entirely in-house with, essentially, no budget. It is a great example of what can be done with the talent that we have at Towson. Both Samantha and I are in the video. Samantha is in a few scenes, but I only make a three-second cameo. When possible, I like to ‘sneak’ in a shot, kind of like Hitchcock. But in actuality, on that particular day, we were short on extras.”