NCI Video Production | October Update
Welcome back to the first video-focused blog post of the Northern Crops Institute (NCI) communications team. Video production is at an all-time high right now with course content and a busy 2021 harvest underway.
October 2021 Harvest Video Shoots:
October is the busiest month of harvest for farmers within NCI’s four-state region of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. Last month, the communications crew paid visits to a few Minnesota and North Dakota farms for filming. This month, the production of the videos from that footage goes into the works.
The corn harvest footage last month from the Dave Vipond farm in Mahnomen, MN, and Quandt Brothers farm in Oakes, ND, has already been put to use in the October video batch. Both of these farm visit videos have already been completed, with one more on the way. In the coming days, an interview video with Kristin Weeks Duncanson of Highland Family Farms in Mapleton, MN, will complete the October farmer videos.
“Minnesota farmers are committed to this idea of constantly improving our cropping operations to be more sustainable, and, better yet, more resilient,” said Weeks Duncanson. Sustainability is one of the hot topics right now, and the NCI is playing an instrumental role in promoting the sustainable measures farmers in the region take in growing some of the world’s best crops.
There is much more than just corn in this northern region though. Schiefelbein Farms in Kimball, MN, began bean harvest on September 26th this year, and the NCI cameras were right there waiting. The clear blue skies and multicolored fall leaves in the background set a perfect scene to capture many scenes of the combine eating up the beans.
Video Shoot at Hankinson Renewable Energy in Hankinson, ND
NCI Course Video Production:
The NCI incorporates the stories of farmers captured by the video team into its educational courses. This month, there is one course, which is being held online: “Ethanol Procurement for Importers.” All the corn harvest videos that are and will be completed for this month will make their debuts during this course.
For more information about upcoming courses at Northern Crops Institute, please visit https://www.northern-crops.com/courses.
The NCI video crew is also currently working on two ethanol plant videos for the upcoming course. The first is of an extensive tour and interview with Randall Doyal, Chief Executive Officer of Al-Corn Clean Fuel in Claremont, MN. Doyal talks about Minnesota’s impressive leadership in the ethanol industry in the United States.
The Al-Corn Clean Fuel plant grinds almost 42 million bushels of corn annually and produces over 125 million gallons of ethanol. Al-Corn is one of Minnesota’s eighteen ethanol plants driving the state to its #4 ranking of ethanol production capacity in the United States.
For the second ethanol plant tour, three members of the NCI communications team travelled to Hankinson, ND, for a shoot at Hankinson Renewable Energy. Even after half a day of shooting, there were still many aspects of the plant left uncovered, so the video’s production will focus on the quality assurance throughout the ethanol-making process.
Heavy video shooting and editing is keeping the team’s schedules tightly booked this month. Another of the October goals is to create a video highlighting the lab work at an ethanol plant. It will require hard work and busy workdays to add this to the agenda, but the crew is up for the challenge.
Behind the scenes production of the Traceability in Agriculture event at NCI
Seed to Feed Campaign and Traceability in Agriculture Event:
Earlier this year, the NCI communications team filmed four installments for the “Seed to Feed” blog and video series at the NCI feed mill. The “Seed to Feed” campaign is a project by Genesis Feed Technologies in collaboration with NCI and eight other industry partners. The goal was to highlight traceability along the U.S. commodity supply chain.
Each Wednesday of October, a new segment of the blog and video was posted. To read and watch each one, visit https://www.northern-crops.com/blog.
The four videos are under five-minute scenes where Genesis Feed Technologies Co-Founder Peter Schott and NCI Director Mark Jirik discuss various topics.
The Seed to Feed campaign wrapped up on October 14, 2021. The traceability event was hosted in-person in the NCI auditorium. However, it was available to the virtual audience as well, thanks to the NCI comm team doing a great job showcasing its broadcasting technology skills once again. The process involved switching between camera angles and creating screen graphics to provide the online attendees with the best viewing experience possible.
The ability to engage with virtual audiences has been an advantage to sharing NCI’s mission through digital videos. For more information about the Northern Crops Institute, please visit https://www.northern-crops.com/.
VIDEO PREVIEW: Check out a short video preview with some of the top harvest 2021 comments from five northern region farmers.