Hawk Studios, the student run Video Production Club at SUNY New Paltz has been working on many new projects in the Spring 2022 semester. Among them are “What the Hawk?!”, “Going Live” and “The Grass is Always Greener.”
The club’s production comes in three phases: development, production and marketing. Each has a different role to ensure the studio’s success. Development entails the pre-production and planning aspect of production. Production is the actual creation, filming and producing of those projects. Marketing comes with the distribution and dissemination of those projects.
President and Head of Production for Hawk Studios, Olivia Meynadasy touched on the various projects the studio has been working on saying, “The whole semester it’s been a lot of trial and error getting our club members engaged on one central project.”
“What the Hawk?!” is a biweekly “late night style” show that airs on YouTube on Fridays. “It’s been pretty experimental,” Meynadasy said. “There is a general format to the show. There’s always a guest, there’s one host, there’s segments and some kind of activity, but all those things change.”
The show’s pilot episode came out on February 26, 2022 and there are currently five episodes of “What the Hawk?!” out right now with more to come in the future. The lengths of the episodes range anywhere from 20-30 minutes in length.
“Going Live” is another project that Hawk Studios is working on. It is a series that showcases local artists and bands through recorded live performances, which Meynadasy explained is similar to NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts series.
The first episode covers Brittanie, she performed two of her own songs, “Feel Good” and “Hopelessly” along with a cover of Aeris Roves’ “Delilah.” The pilot of “Going Live” was released in March with the next episode set to be released very soon according to Meynadasy.
The studio also works with WFNP Radio to record some of the currently ongoing radio shows. Hawk Studios is currently recording airings of “Culture Report” and “Everything About Bands.”
“We provide a setup of a couple cameras and lights and then we will usually live switch,” said Meynadasy. “We haven’t uploaded any of the things we’ve recorded yet, but those will be out soon and will most likely continue into next semester.”
The recordings of the radio shows serve as an extra aspect to the already existing aired show. This recording will act as an archive and an outlet for both the radio host and Hawk Studios to create media in collaboration with each other.
“The goal is to have a permanent setup in [the WFNP studio] with cameras and lights,” Meynadasy said. “Have it be a routine thing for other shows to take advantage of.”
Hawk Studios will also be screening their newest project “The Grass is Always Greener,” a dark comedy series, on Thursday, April 28 in Lecture Center 100 at 7 p.m.
The studio is not open to only digital media and journalism majors, anyone with an interest in any of the aspects Hawk Studios has to offer is encouraged to reach out and join.
Hawk Studios can can be reached on Instagram @nphawkstudios and their website, which is hawkstudios.newpaltz.edu
