Case Study
At A Glance At a grad, how do you tell the authentic, human stories of the college and its graduates, staff, alumni, and employers?
Benefits
- Showcased the profound human element of education, highlighting the college founder’s vision that students need encouragement, support, and an environment that treats them as unique individuals.
- Celebrated the quiet victories and deep respect within a diverse community that has helped over 40,000 students build careers across Newfoundland and Labrador.
- Delivered immediate engagement by utilizing a real-time media strategy to document the milestone event as it happened.
Objectives Gale Force Wins was tasked to capture conversations at the Academy Canada Harding Road Graduation. The primary goal was to tell the authentic stories of the students, staff, and leadership while employing a highly efficient production model to share these moments instantly.
Solution
The core of Gale Force Wins’ Rapid Content Creation Technique relies on an authentic and highly efficient on-site workflow. Upon arriving at the Academy Canada Harding Road Campus Graduation, the team immediately sets up their equipment and reviews the pre-established themes—such as the college’s 40-year history of providing supportive, individualized training that helps build the province’s workforce. With these guiding themes ready, the team then sits down with each guest for a completely unscripted conversation. By avoiding rehearsed lines and fostering natural dialogue, this agile process allows for the immediate and genuine capture of personal stories from a diverse array of guests, ranging from students and alumni to leadership like President and CEO Lisa Lovelady, ultimately resulting in 25 authentic videos recorded, edited, and posted as the event unfolded.
Planning Gale Force Wins met with Academy Canada to deeply understand the themes they hoped to convey: community connection, individual student support, and a celebration of providing quality training for 40 years. The team quickly grasped the emotional weight of the graduation and sorted out the logistics required to interview a wide spectrum of the college community. This ensured that unique perspectives—from fresh graduates entering the workforce to the insights of the college’s President and CEO—were carefully mapped out for capture.
Process To achieve this, Gale Force Wins employed its Rapid Content Creation Technique, recording, editing, and posting 25 videos as the event unfolded over a two-day period.
Gale Force Wins conducted intimate, empathetic interviews with featured individuals to document the realities of their educational journeys and careers. The team captured the overarching philosophies of the institution through leadership like Lisa Lovelady, the President and CEO of Academy Canada. They recorded the personal gravity and stories of numerous individuals, including Evrin Lovelady, Shawn Manning, Meagan King, and Jay Walters.
The production also highlighted the energetic atmosphere of the day with rapid-fire promotional and celebratory shorts, such as “Celebrating and honouring students” and “Why Academy Canada is for you!”. Ultimately, the production wove together the individual moments of the day, delivering a powerful 360-degree narrative that looks past the graduation gowns to reveal the human beings who reflect the college’s 95% student satisfaction rate and its mission to make the province stronger.