Professor Guerra Wins National Awards for UCSF, SF Giants Videos
Assistant Professor Oscar Guerra scored two major wins recently. Videos he directed for the San Francisco Giants and University of California, San Francisco, won national awards from the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts. Winners were selected from more than 1,540 entries from more than 175 colleges and universities.
Festival winners from the Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts faculty in the past decade include Marie Drennan, Dina Ibrahim, Jeff Jacoby and David Dunaway.
The Giants and the Gators
Estación de mi Gente, a profile of San Francisco Giants legend Tito Fuentes, tied for first place in the Short Form Sports Video category. The video aired on NBC Sports Bay Area. Guerra shares the award with the video’s producers, Lecturer Antonio A. Ayala and SF Giants Productions Vice President Paul Hodges III (B.A., Radio and Television, ’01). Students Jonny Trimboli, Jacob Crowell, Adam Griffith and Adrian Chen worked on the video as well.
In the video, Fuentes details his journey from Cuban émigré to Major League infielder and the Giants’ Spanish-language radio announcer.
As part of a campaign to connect with the Latino community, Hodges approached Ayala in creating a series of Spanish-language commercials and profiles. Ayala then connected with Guerra, his BECA colleague, and they hired students in the Directors’ Editing Club on campus. They also produced a commercial that aired nationally on Telemundo, with more projects in the works for the 2018 season. “The Giants are close to my heart, and these stories are close to my heart, too,” says Ayala (B.A., BECA, ’13).
Training for the operating room
Guerra also directed Open Chest Simulation, winner of the Award of Excellence in the Educational or Instructional category.
The training video, required for UCSF’s 10ICC, Intensive Cardiac Care Unit, goes through the process of opening a patient’s chest at the bedside, to treat cardiac arrest. It features four actors and a dummy in front of multiple cameras.
Five SF State students worked on this video: Crowell, Jessi Fry, Chris Karl, Elizabeth Siri and Alejandro Fuentes. Guerra and his student team will soon produce another training video for UCSF.
Better than the pros
Guerra always makes sure to hire students for his professional production work. They take on roles such as camera operator, editor, gaffer, production assistant and audio.
“We can do video production just as good, or even better, than a professional company,” Guerra says.
Trimboli, a senior BECA major, says serving as editor on the Giants video provided him with a valuable opportunity in completing work on tight deadlines and providing a finished product according to very technical, precise specifications.
“When working in such a professional environment, you have to deliver everything correctly or you’ll be fired. You have to learn on your feet,” he says.
Broadcast Education Association
The Broadcast Education Association is the premier international academic media organization, driving insights, excellence in media production, and career advancement for educators, students and professionals. The association’s publications, annual convention, web-based programs and regional district activities provide opportunities for juried production competition and presentation of scholarly research.
BEA’s Festival of Media Arts takes place April 7 – 10 in Las Vegas.
— Matt Itelson
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Photo: From left: Students Jacob Crowell and Elizabeth Siri, Nurse Practitioner Amber Forster and Assistant Professor Oscar Guerra shoot a training video for UCSF’s 10ICC, Intensive Cardiac Care Unit personnel. Photo courtesy of Guerra.