Students Attend Realscreen Summit 2024 in New Orleans
Students attended Realscreen Summit in 2024 in New Orleans. From left to right: Adjunct Lecturer Clint Elmore, Adjunct Lecturer Melissa Sykes, Fulton Myrick, Garrett Wright, Lukas Vyniauskus, Aaliyah Hammontree, Sierra Scott and, Katlynn Gill
On his first day at Realscreen Summit 2024, senior Lukas Vysniauskas attended a speed networking session.
He met around twenty individuals with various levels of expertise in film production. An aspiring documentary filmmaker, Vysniauskas said he learned a lot about different aspects of the industry, including opportunities he was unaware of prior to attending Realscreen, an annual global market and conference for the unscripted and non-fiction entertainment industry.
Vysniakuskas’ experience was made possible thanks to a generous gift from alumnus Stephen Land (‘76). Land gave to the College of Communication and Information with the desire to provide students like Vysniakuskas the opportunity to network and gain invaluable real-world experience in the unscripted and non-fiction content industry at conferences like Realscreen.
“According to Realscreen, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, had the only students there and they were amazed at how generous the media professionals were with their time and guidance,” School of Journalism and Media Adjunct Lecturer Melissa Sykes said. “Everyone was always willing to speak with them.”
Sykes said, during the annual conference, Realscreen becomes the center of the non-fiction/factual media world and provides access to many people in the industry all in one place. Along with different networking opportunities, students attended keynotes with industry leaders from companies such as HBO Documentary, ABC/Hulu, Warner Bros./Discovery, and digital collectives like Smosh.
Vysniauskas highly recommends more students take advantage of JREM 489 Creative Production Capstone and the opportunity to attend Realscreen. He said some professors have requested he share his experience in their class because it was that impactful.
“The opportunity that Stephen Land has created through this class is unbelievable,” Vysniauskas said. “I can’t say enough good things about how much it has taught me, how much I’ve learned from the class, and how much experience I got.”
From idea to show pitch
As part of JREM 489, students created original programming concepts and pitch materials. At the end of the semester, students presented their concepts to a panel of industry professionals with the best pitches getting to also present at Realscreen.
Sykes said the students who attended Realscreen pitched their original ideas to networks, production companies, and potential investors. Some students were asked to follow-up with additional information, which Sykes said is not typical and speaks to the quality of the students’ work.
One of those students was senior Sierra Scott. She pitched her Breaking In show idea at RealScreen and has since continued to work with a potential investor on developing the idea.
Inspired by her passion for singing and songwriting, the concept is a themed, song-writing competition that integrates social media voting and online communities to support other singers and songwriters.
The summit was the first time she pitched anything and Scott was ecstatic about the interest her idea received. She also participated in the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation’s Vol Court—a four-week entrepreneurial speaker series that culminates in a business idea pitch competition—to find other potential avenues for startup funding to support her show concept.
Scott said she never considered writing a show until taking the capstone course. Being naturally creative, Scott enrolled in the School of Journalism and Media as a way to take advantage of courses she viewed can help her as she aspires to work in sales and marketing.
Senior Katlynn Gill, an aspiring sports journalist, also took the course and attended the summit even though her career goals are more aligned with sports broadcasting. She was shocked at how much inspiration she gained from the keynote speakers and people she spoke with at the summit. She was nervous her aspirations might cause people not to be as open to connecting with her but fortunately she was wrong.
“When you get down to it, unscripted television and my career have one very big thing in common: storytelling,” Gill said. “We are all trying to find new innovative ways to connect our audience to the characters we use in our pieces, and tell the story of incredible people whether it be sports, true crime, natural history, and music.”
Sykes said students took full advantage of the opportunity and is proud of each of them. She added they all expressed appreciation for the opportunity and for being introduced to the extensive world of possibilities offered in the unscripted and non-fiction entertainment industry.
“It was an extraordinary opportunity for students,” Sykes said. “The capstone class challenged students to build on all the knowledge and skills gained in their previous classes. We were gratified with how exceptionally well they presented at this global conference. Many home runs.”