A behind the scenes spotlight on one of our recent award-winning projects... Riverside Military Academy: COMPRO Productions succeeds with "Success"

"It's a difficult problem to solve! How can we entice middle and high school-aged boys to want to subject themselves to rigid military discipline? Parents who might recognize their son's need for a more structured environment frequently are apprehensive about how to determine what's going to be the best thing for for their child. How can we reassure them so they can confidently provide their boys an opportunity for the Riverside experience?" As Riverside Military Academy's Director of Recruitment, Capt. Alan Weiler's enthusiasm for his mission is contagious. "During a period when our society at-large is beginning to recognize today's problems related to lack of responsibility, self-discipline and self-esteem in our youth, Riverside provides young men with the tools they need to succeed in college... and subsequently, in life!."

COMPRO's production team worked closely with Riverside Military Academy to create "An Opportunity for Success"

The response of COMPRO Production's production team is almost instantaneous. The message crystallized. The boys and their parents need to hear that Riverside Military Academy consistently provides "An Opportunity for Success". This is the title of the marketing and orientation video program resulting from the yearlong creative collaboration of COMPRO and Riverside's recruiting and admissions departments.

The development of a Riverside cadet's virtues of individual responsibility, self-discipline, teamwork, leadership and honor parallels the visual assembly of a cadet's Riverside uniform, and is explored against the background of Riverside's newly-constructed million dollar campus near Gainesville, Georgia. COMPRO's cameras captured the full seasonal range of activities and events that comprise the school's mission to develop and educate the "whole person" in a controlled, nurturing environment.

Director/Cameraman Nels Anderson gives a bit of creative direction to a Riverside cadet

Director/Cameraman Nels Anderson paired COMPRO's digital Ikegami/Betacam SP cameras with a full pallet of production hardware and techniques, including Fisher hybrid dollies, Tyler helicopter mounts, Steadicams, and CamMate camera booms, to achieve the story's spectacular shots. Transitions between the various segments of the program link visually similar shots to carefully-composed close-ups of a cadet's hands assembling the uniform. The wrestlers depicted on a medal being pinned to the uniform are transformed

Spectacular visual transitions were achieved through the use of CamMate camera booms

into straining wrestlers in an actual match. The flash of a strobe light at a cadet dance becomes the flash on the blade of a saber. The rope in the hands of a cadet at the rappelling tower becomes the uniform's citation cord. The closing sequence sums up the ongoing developmental cycle of the cadets. The shot begins in a dorm room, where a graduating cadet is being greeted by his parents. The camera moves back... then out the 2nd story window... and then moves down to ground level to settle on an incoming cadet having his uniform critiqued by an upper-class officer.

Riverside's personnel used COMPRO's Client Channels extensively throughout the production process for approvals & project updates

The power of the Internet and COMPRO's Web site provide another unique production tool. Riverside's creative and administrative departments surfed into their assigned Client Channel to check on the production's progress and to view and approve graphics and animation samples. COMPRO's Webmaster and Director/Editor Aaron Weiler (not related to Alan) says " the Riverside project was one of the first to make extensive use of our Client Channels, and took client information and convenience to a new level. Instead of carving meeting times out of Riverside's administration office schedules, Capt. Alan Weiler was able to provide his superiors with a username and password so they could check the project's progress at their convenience from 50 miles away... 24/7."

Capt. Weiler says the results speak for themselves. "The video has been a complete triumph for us, with school enrollment reaching capacity sooner than anticipated. From the treatment all the way through Aaron Weiler's VHS packaging design and floor-to-ceiling display banners, the creative people at COMPRO made it possible for Riverside Military Academy to succeed. And nothing succeeds better than... 'An Opportunity for Success'!"