By Bryan Brown
Staff Reporter
Two Sacred Heart University students are participating in the NESN Next Producer Competition, which is currently in its third season.
Senior, Ian Baron, a Communications major with a focus in sports media, and junior, Eric Torrens, a Communications major with a focus in film and television, are currently finalists.
The two have been voted into the competitions ‘Final 12 Videos,” by two highly-known Hollywood producers, Tom Wernerand and Brad Falchuk.
“The films were judged very highly so it was special to be voted into the ‘Top 12.’ It showed that what we are learning here means a lot and that we are on the right paths of our career,” said Torrens.
In the competition, you are allowed to make a film on your own, or in a group. Groups are allowed four people at most, and the film must be kept under four-and-a-half minutes long and must be about sports.
Three finalists will be announced on March 31, at 4 PM.
Each finalist will then meet with Red Sox marketing executives and will be asked to produce a short Red Sox vignette. The finalist for the best student film and vignette will win 20,000 dollars and a job opportunity with NESN.
The two both said they would take the job if they should win, and that they would evenly split the money.
“I have to pay him back for all the gas we used though,” said Torrens.
The two found out about the competition through a sports media club meeting.
They thought it was a good idea to work together on the project, and that it would be a great opportunity not only for some professional experience but also for some fun.
“We have known each other for awhile now, we were in the same CM 102 class, and we studied over-seas in Dingle together, so I knew what he was capable of with his work,” said Baron. “After the meeting, I reached out to him right away, and we both agreed we should enter together.”
They completed the whole shooting of the video over one weekend on a trip to Hofstra University. They used each other’s strengths to make the best video possible.
“If I miss something, he picks up on it and vice-versa, we didn’t fight at all on it. At the end of the day, were friends and we weren’t going to let anything affect that,” said Baron.
Sacred Heart has also been supportive of Baron and Torrens throughout this process.
“We had an interview with PR of Sacred Heart to spread the film through the area on multiple news formats, we even got special equipment that is usually reserved for graduate programs,” said Torrens.
The two decided to do their video on Torrens’ grandfather, John Cammarata, who played college baseball back in the day, at Hofstra University.
The video tells the story of how Cammarata won the 1956 batting title in the MET conference which was awarded by the professional baseball team, The Brooklyn Dodgers.
The story is special, not only because of Cammarata’s difficult feat but also because 1956 was the last year the Dodgers played in Brooklyn, thus making Cammarata the last recipient of the award, which was one he had idolized since he was a child.
“My grandpa once told me, ‘your storybook moment isn’t always making it to the big leagues, you can have many big moments before then,’” said Torrens.
Students can vote for Ian and Eric’s video on nesnnext.nesn.com.
