For TFA's Production-In-Action in January 2012, students participated in Campaign for a Cause, spending three intensive weeks planning, creating, and executing fundraising campaigns for five charities: Fisher House Foundation, Music Saves Lives, Share our Strength, Shirts for a Cure, and To Write Love On Her Arms. In this blog post, TFA Artist in Residence Killian Heilsberg shares her reflections on a project that garnered over $15,000 for these wonderful organizations.
The best part of Production-In-Action is the very first day, when we walk into the Matrix and the students are told, “This is what we are doing and you have 16 days to get there and we have no idea how it is going to work out because you are doing it all.” And then they scramble and get their footing and start running and we just jog along, trying to keep up.
On the surface, this year seems no different. We’re jogging along, watching these agile minds wrangle the national transmedia campaigns for organizations like Share Our Strength, Fisher House, Music Saves Lives, To Write Love on Her Arms, and Shirts for a Cure -- watching them tumble and fall, make mistakes, jump back up and right themselves in mere seconds, resilient and powerful, flinging themselves right back in again. Watching them come up with new ideas, bring them to life (and frankly, this is the very best part).
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Campaign for a Cause Production Day |
Except for one tiny little thing – this year they are working with clients, and that’s the best part of the whole process. The students realizing what they are doing has an impact on their professional lives. Seeing them discover their chosen field is very real, very far-reaching, and they will have thousands of eyes on them during this national campaign.
At the end of three weeks, students have a lot to show for their effort. Our teams created thoughtful and compelling public service announcements (like this, this, and this), stunning visual art, moving live events (like cooking demos and concerts), and captivating games. More than anything, they created awareness. They created a difference.
But all in all, I think the best is yet to come. During PIA, they were in the throes of the creative process. They immersed themselves in their dreams, and have emerged the other side, changed forever, not just because they have created a piece of work in surprisingly little time, nor yet because they have challenged their endurance, but because this year they collaborated on not only works of art, but works of heart.
About the Author: Killian Heilsberg, Film + Broadcast
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Artist-in-Residence Killian Heilsberg is an independent writer/director with a background in acting, theatre, musical theatre, narrative and experimental film.
She has dabbled in animation, researched persistent virtual environments, has created web content and is currently working with students to produce a sustained multimedia webisodic, Kurumaku: Potential Energy.
Email: killian.heilsberg@tfa.edu
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