Courtesy of Matthew Mann
This past summer, UR created a 10-second video in response to the prompt “My University is world-class because…” for this fall’s launch of the World University Rankings 2012-13 by Times Higher Education, a weekly magazine based in London that sponsored the competition. UR was selected as a finalist on Thursday, Nov. 1 along with 13 other schools. Each school’s video is featured on the Times Higher Education YouTube page in consideration for the top spot.
“It’s difficult to communicate any message in 10 seconds, no matter how simple it is, but I think we were able to include the elements that were most essential to the theme,” Matthew Mann, a video journalist in the Office of University Communications who produced the video, said. “We knew that we wanted the message to come directly from students and since it had to be such a concise statement, we decided that our mission statement would be the best place to start.”
Mann also said that the concept allowed them to include images that reflect some of the most important elements of the University that make it world-class, from research to the high level of patient care at the UR Medical Center and to the arts and music programs and all the work that faculty and students are involved with both inside and outside of the classroom.
“We were trying to come up with an idea that would best represent how diverse our University is from our students that come to [UR] from around the world to all of the programs that we offer,” he said. “We also wanted to capture the spirit of innovation and creativity that is so strong here while still recognizing the long history and tradition that exists here. I think we struck that balance by shooting it with the iconic backdrop of the Eastman [Quadrangle] and selecting shots that reflect the elements of our mission statement.”
Junior Andrew McGrath, who was featured in the video, said that the process of making it was quick but interesting.
“Since the video was only about 10 to 15 seconds long, there wasn’t much to shoot, so there were multiple takes done of the same line to make sure everything turned out well,” he said. “I was actually surprised at the detail that our videographer went into to make sure it came out properly.”
A winner will be selected based on the videos’ views and comments on YouTube. As of press time, UR’s video had 357 views.
Teitelman is a member of the class of 2016.
