Documentary: Norwin Band 2024 Season

In 2024, the Norwin Band traveled to Grand Nationals. A former student, Evan Blenko, took on the daunting task of documenting the highlights of the 2024 Norwin Band fall season. These videos were shared throughout the fall on social media. While the original pitch was a 3-video series, the end result was a whopping 23 short-form videos and a full-length 73-minute documentary.

We documented through high-quality video the hard work the students put into their performances and rehearsals, as well as the traditions that are unique to the Norwin Band. Each short video became a way to reach out to our students, families, alumni, and especially the community. The project validates the efforts of our current and former students while inspiring future students and the community.

Community members were the primary focus; the videos were made assuming the viewer was new to the Norwin Band program. It’s always important that the voters and taxpayers understand the success of the program and the value of music education in their community.

From there, it was a waterfall effect. It was a way to keep the administration informed on the program, while being validating and entertaining for current and former students and their families.

Evan planned and pitched the project in May of 2024 and filmed an average of 5 hours a week through the remainder of the summer, from June through the middle of August. He then dedicated several hours a week to editing the footage into short social media videos during the summer and fall. We estimate he spent 120 hours in total on the initiative. The first video was released on July 22nd, with a total of 23 videos being released on a weekly basis for the rest of the band season, with the last video released on December 23, 2024.

The video creator spearheaded the initiative. He pitched to the band directors, did a majority of the filming, edited the videos, and posted them to the band social media pages, which we estimate totaled around 120 hours.

A parent volunteer primarily helped facilitate Evan’s access to the organization and social media pages. She served as a consultant whenever questions arose.

Directors gave weekly approval to videos before they were posted.

We used a DJI Osmo Pocket camera and a DJI Mini 4k drone for filming and Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing. We then posted the videos to Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

We shared the videos through our social media channels of Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. We encouraged students and parents to repost the videos, which positively impacted the performance of the content.

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One of the primary obstacles was that Evan was an out-of-state college student at the time, so he was unable to film for most of the fall. We wished we could have had a full-time videographer traveling with the band to events. However, we were able to overcome this by having parents and students send footage of events to Evan for him to edit.

It was effective. Parents, alumni, community members, and other educators and administrators gave the videos positive feedback. A regular posting schedule helped boost our social media reach. Social media analytics for the 6 videos we’re featuring (per the video submission guidelines) are attached below as a PDF. Also attached are links to all 23 videos on all 3 platforms.

From the director: “From a community perspective, these videos gave people fantastic insight into a process that they aren’t familiar with. I had several people say to me throughout the season that they were so interested to see how drill worked, and how the show design process progressed. I think the legacy of this project is giving people a window into a world that they haven’t been a part of. I think it helped to underscore the complex educational environment that marching band is, and gave additional meaning to the high level things that we ask of students.”

From a parent: “The documentary certainly helps give parents, who were not band members themselves, a better understanding of the amount of work that goes into every performance. The drone footage of the practice field showing the dots explained more than any verbal description. It was also good to hear from the directors, staff, student leaders and band members giving a full circle perspective of a competitive marching band.”

Plan what videos and topics you’ll cover before the season begins. Formulate interview questions that you can film early on. Having a clear vision for the tone and knowing how footage should be filmed (horizontal vs. vertical, audio, etc.) from the beginning helped this initiative thrive.