Illinois Institute of Technology Professional Learning Programs

One of the more rewarding aspects of being in the marketing and communications business is when a new client calls because they saw a previous video you produced and loved it.  That’s what happened last fall when the Applied Learning Program at the Illinois Institute of Technology called to say they wanted to talk to Motion Post about producing a recruiting video.  During the spring of 2011 Motion Post produced a re-branding video for IIT’s Institute for Food Safety and Health, better known as IFSH.  


At our first meeting we decided to shoot some scenic shoots of the campus during the beautiful fall weather. Tom McCosky visited the IIT campus on a beautiful September day.  The footage looked incredible.  Our client had even asked if that was the same place he worked. :) 

View of IIT Campus from the tower

After the Holidays we sat down with the IIT team and started to plan the project. University recruitment programs need to hit the mark.  What’s the draw for students to want to come to IIT Chicago and join the program?   IIT is a world class university.  Chicago is a great city.  The Applied Learning Programs offers a 6 week internship that not only increases the student’s business skills but has proven to be an extremely effective program for helping each student with their English skills.  That’s the big pay off.  And we captured it all.  

Great locations at IIT's University Technology Park

Some amazing interviews from the faculty and of the student’s experiences and how they’ll be able to apply their new working skills and their coursework to the workforce back home or wherever they choose to live and work.

Now it was time to edit the program, with ten hours of interviews in the can, we decided to use the latest version of Adobe’s industry leading software Premiere Pro CS 6 to cut this project. We love premiere’s ability to work with P2 footage right off the cards (no need to transcode), this would let us speed through all of the interviews and capture the best possible sound bites.  Next we had to fine tune the interviews into a clear narrative. We used the faculty to give the program the flow then interspersed the alumni to support the faculty comments. After the first round of positive client reviews we started to polish the program. We used Magic Bullet’s Colorista 2 for color grading and Digital Anarchy’s Beauty Box to really have everyone look their best. Adobe audition completed the audio clean up and mix.

McCormick Center with Colorista 2 applied

McCormick Center without Colorista 2 applied

Interview with Beauty Box and Colorista 2 applied

Interview without Beauty Box and Colorista 2 applied

Interview with Beauty Box and Colorista 2 applied

Interview without Beauty Box and Colorista 2 applied

The final step was to author a dvd and print up the packaging. We worked with IIT’s internal communications department to create an effective/informative video brochure, packing for the finished DVD.
The Recruiting video made its way to 8 Universities in Korea a week after we finished the program in April 2012.  Rave reviews by all.  Next stop China.  The program plans to make it to 8 countries including the U.S.  

Jeff Evenson