Awards Keep Pouring In For Ball State Torch Relay Team

Students in the Department of Telecommunications at Ball State University have received eleven awards for their work on the Indiana Bicentennial Torch Relay project.

The entire media campaign has won five awards:
1). Leader Award from the Summit Emerging Media Competition
2). Best of Show Addy from the East-Central Indiana AAF
3). Gold Addy in Film, Video, Sound for Public Service from the ECI AAF
4). Pinnacle Award of Honor from the Hoosier Chapter of the PRSA
5). Best Online Student Multimedia from the Society of Professional Journalists

The team’s documentary, Everlasting Light: The story of Indiana’s Bicentennial Torch Relay has won six awards:
1). Accolade Award of Merit – Documentary Short Category
2). Accolade Award of Merit – Documentary/Program/Series Category
3). Accolade Award of Merit – History/Biography/Travel Category
4). Accolade Award of Merit – Cinematography
5). Best In-Depth Video – Indiana Association of School Broadcasters
6). 3rd Place – Student TV Documentary: Society of Professional Journalists

During the five week relay, undergraduate and graduate students from Ball State University worked with university faculty and staff from the Indiana Office of Tourism Development to produce daily videos, photos, articles, and social media related to the relay. A second team operated out of Muncie and produced a 36-minute documentary titled, Everlasting Light: The Story of Indiana’s Bicentennial Torch Relay. All media content, including 37 daily highlight videos and thousands of photos are available online at: http://indianatorchrelay.com/.

Everlasting Light: The Story of Indiana’s Bicentennial Torch Relay from Ball State Student Media on Vimeo.

About the Relay
The 37 day journey was meant to inspire and unify Hoosiers by symbolically “passing the torch,” connecting generations to ignite our future. The relay was developed by the Indiana Office of Tourism Development as a signature project of the Indiana Bicentennial Commission.

The relay traveled through 260 cities and towns across all 92 Indiana counties. The torch was carried a total of 3,226 miles by 2,242 torchbearers. The torch relay culminated at the Indiana Statehouse, where the Hoosier Homecoming celebration was held. An art sculpture titled Lux Aeterna located on Bicentennial Plaza now holds the everlasting light.

About the Media Team
From September 9 to October 15, the Ball State Torch Relay team produced the media components working in conjunction with the Indiana Office of Tourism Development. The team traveled with the Torch through all 92 Indiana counties and provided daily video highlight reels, social media posts, photos of the day’s events, and photographs of each and every torchbearer. A documentary team worked out of Ball State University to produce a ~36 minute documentary of the entire event. This team traveled to interview torchbearers, key political officials, and stakeholders of the 5 and 1/2 week event. A writing team also worked independently to write a series of articles on state history, the torch relay, and an overview of specific locations along the relay.

The project was financially supported by the Indiana Office of Tourism Development and Ball State University. It was implemented by the Department of Telecommunications and the Office of Immersive Learning at Ball State University. Together, thirty students from Ball State’s Telecommunications, Journalism, History, and Digital Storytelling programs worked on the project.

The production team included the following: Samantha Brammer, photographer; Anthony Campagna, cinematographer; Jacob Cannon, production assistant; Bre Daugherty, photographer; Erin Drake, staff writer; Hannah Dwyer, staff writer; Kelly Figley, assistant director; Garrett Finn, production assistant; Emily Fischer, assistant camera operator; Jack Freske, assistant camera operator and cinematographer; Amy Frye, production assistant; Brian Gibson, editor and graduate assistant; Michael Harris, lead editor and colorist; Micah Holtgraves, cinematographer; Sami Hunter, documentary director; Daniel Johnson, lead editor; Luke Jones, field audio specialist; Michelle Kaufman, staff writer; Lydia Kirschner, social media; Sadie Lebo, social media and lead photographer; Nicole Lehrman, cinematographer; Jana Lowery, editor; Denver McQuaid, motiongraphics and production assistant; Kayla Meehan, field producer; Vivien Pong, executive producer; Max Troyer, field audio specialist; Abigail Urbik, field audio director; Claire Willette, production assistant; Michele Whitehair, staff writer; Zeyu Zhang, field producer; Chris Flook, project advisor and web designer; and Kelli Huth, immersive learning advisor.