BRATTLEBORO — In honor of Community Media Day on Oct. 20, Brattleboro Community Television announced its producer awards for 2017 and the opportunity to vote for BCTV's “People's Choice Award,” a new concept this year that will become part of BCTV's annual awards ceremony.
Voting, which is open to everyone, began on Oct. 20 at www.brattleborotv.org/news/bctv-news/vote-bctv-peoples-choice-video-award.
The People's Choice Award will have a cash prize and is sponsored by Mondo Mediaworks, a local digital marketing agency.
BCTV's annual awards ceremony will be held on Nov. 2, at 6 p.m., at 118 Elliot, and the public is invited. The People's Choice Award winner will be announced that night along with the organizations and individuals who will be recognized for their outstanding work during the past fiscal year.
BCTV's more than 50 local producers have been nationally recognized and, together with staff, produce 1,500 new local shows with more than 1,200 hours of local programming each year.
Producer awards night is fashioned after major nationally televised award shows. It's a fun event, and dressing up is encouraged to honor the awardees.
The following organizations and individuals will be recognized.
• Community Partner of the Year: Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts.
The gallery holds a signature monthly “Artist Talk” - a dialogue with a featured artist discussing their process. Mitchell-Giddings enlisted videographer Andy Reichsman to produce a series of shows documenting the artist's talks, titled “MGFA Presents,” aired on BCTV, and shared on the gallery's website.
Watch the videos at www.brattleborotv.org/mitchell-giddings-fine-arts.
• Municipal Partner of the Year: WSESU Act 46 Study Committee.
Five members of the study committee came to BCTV to create a short video “Act 46 FAQs for WSESU,” explaining their recommendations for a merger proposal. Committee member Jill Stahl-Tyler noticed that people's concerns were typically best addressed when they could talk one-on-one with their neighbors or friends.
You can see the video at www.brattleborotv.org/windham-southeast-supervisory-union/act-46-faqs-wsesu-full-video.
• Nonprofit Member of the Year: Guilford Community Church.
Pastor Lise Sparrow, who had wanted to record the services at Guilford Community Church for years, finally found the right producer - Gerry del Monico, who records the weekly service for BCTV and online. Choir director Peter Amidon uploads choir anthems to YouTube to share the musical offering.
Watch the videos at www.brattleborotv.org/guilford-community-church.
• Volunteer of the Year: Interns Ben Somin and Jane Fenstermaker.
In July 2016, two students who wanted internships contacted BCTV separately: Somin, from Landmark College, who had DSLR camera skills, and Fenstermaker of BUHS, who knew how to edit. Their timing was perfect. BCTV was seeking ways to partner with WKVT's Green Mountain Mornings to showcase local journalists talking about the news of the day.
For the first six weeks of the show, Somin recorded Chris Lenois talking with journalists from the Reformer and The Commons, and the same day Fenstermaker would edit and add B-roll from BCTV videos for upload that night. They both took on more responsibility than your average intern and worked hard to make the show a reality for the station. See their work at www.brattleborotv.org/green-mtn-mornings-tonight.
• New Producer of the Year: Chard de Niord.
Vermont's Poet Laureate came to BCTV with an idea, and soon learned how to use BCTV's equipment to make it a reality for two different shows. Acting as both host and director, de Niord created “Poets Speak,” a monthly interview show with area poets and writers talking about their work, their inspiration, and how Vermont plays a role in their creativity. Next, he created “You Come Too,” a series of short videos in which he reads a new poem by a Vermont poet each week with visuals provided by local artists Brian Cohen and Eric Aho.
See his “Poets Speak” videos at www.brattleborotv.org/poets-speak-conversations-vt-poet-laureate-chard-deniord, and the “You Come Too” videos can be found at www.brattleborotv.org/you-come-too-poetry-series.
• Producer of the Year: Gerry del Monico, who became active with BCTV two years ago and instantly rose to become one of its most prolific producers.
del Monico mastered the technique of using a tablet to create and edit short pieces, adding music and narration and submitting it as a finished program. His regular series include, “Day Kitchen Demos,” shot at the Brattleboro Food Co-op, and “It Happens in Brattleboro,” where he takes to the streets of Brattleboro in search of vibrant, sometimes quirky, and always entertaining stories from around town.
His “Day Kitchen Demos” are at www.brattleborotv.org/day-kitchen-demos, while “It Happens in Brattleboro” can be seen at www.brattleborotv.org/it-happens-brattleboro.
• Series of the Year: The World Fusion Show.
Derrik Jordan is a local recording artist, singer/songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and teacher who created The World Fusion Show at BCTV, featuring interviews and performances with a different performer for each episode. Jordan and his technical team, including Wyatt Andrews and Alan Stockwell, employed sophisticated audio capture techniques and created a different set for each show, depending on the guests' instruments.
The show has its own Facebook page and YouTube channel, and some of the videos are available at www.brattleborotv.org/world-fusion-show.