Jarrod Markarian shows professionalism behind the camera

Fresno Christian Schools utilized a campus student to film marketing commercials, for the purpose of boosting enrollment, April 25-27. The unusual part about the filming comes from who was behind the camera and editing work: Jarrod Markarian, an FC senior.

Markarian has worked on The Feather’s video journalism team since 2016, and previously was on the photo journalism team from 2013 to 2016. He also works for Windsong Productions, a video production studio based in Fresno. According to him, this experience is what prompted the school to request his work on the commercials.

“The school choose me to film because of professional experience and my skills on a camera,” Markarian said. “I have learned many professional skills at school and through my job at Windsong Productions. I felt ready for this commercial, and I was excited to finally get my shot at leading a full commercial shoot.”

Markarian was not the only one who felt he was capable of shooting these commercials. Kori Friesen, Feather co-adviser, saw that his training with The Feather prepared him for both this shoot and others.

“Working alongside a professional marketing company only expands his level of professionalism and experience,” Friesen said. “Being a part of The Feather team has given him foundational training for those professional qualities and have built in him an ease of working alongside others.”

Archer & Hound, marketing firm for Fresno Christian, provided the script for the three commercials. The first focuses on kindergarten, while the others focus on grades four through six and last one on the high school experience. Each commercial is around 30 seconds long.

Aaron Coyne, partner and creative director at the marketing firm, assisted with the filming. He has never worked with high school students before, but he was impressed with the quality of their work.

“You know, [having high schoolers film] is not normal at all,” Coyne said. “This is the first time I’ve ever worked with high school students, and they’re doing a great job. I think the reason that we’re able to use them for this is that their level of expertise they’ve gotten from the multimedia experiences they have here at this school have gotten them ahead of the curve, as to where most students would be at this point. So that, coupled with a little bit of our experience, will make this turn out to be something very cool.”

Markarian was not the only high schooler on the production side; the entire video journalism team was there, setting up lights and camera equipment. Editor Clark Zhu, ‘17, believes this filming experience will contribute to his future career.

“I always learn a great deal from working on set, this project in particular,” Zhu said. “Specifically, I learned how to install and tear down the KNO lights. That is very helpful for my future set work.”

Zhu was also positive about working with the advertising agency.

“It was a great experience to work with Archer & Hound,” Zhu said. “Aaron is a very nice person and easy to get along with. He also has a great deal of experience, which helped make the shooting smooth and neat. I learned some valuable tips regarding shooting on set from him, and I am very grateful for that.”

For the focus of the commercials, Coyne wanted to showcase the school’s strengths.

“We want to highlight the one on one aspect available at FCS,” Coyne said. “We’re going to have three different videos targeted to three different demographics. The first would be first-time students, like kindergarten and first grade age. There’s a specific video speaking to parents of children of that age.”

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Markarian also wanted to make sure he showed the aspects of Fresno Christian parents would find the most appealing.

“For the kindergarten commercial, the aspects of Fresno Christian we wanted to emphasize were the safety, security, and nurturing that Fresno Christian offers, as well as personal relationship with teachers,” Markarian said. “We felt that at Fresno Christian, you can get a more personalized relationship with the classroom, where at a public school, you’re more detached, the teacher is not as involved with the parents.”

Besides co-advising The Feather, Friesen is also a member of the campus marketing team. She says it was a collaborative effort between FC’s team and Archer & Hound to ask Markarian to film.

“When Archer and Hound helped develop the concept for these marketing videos, we knew they would want to hire out from a production house,” Friesen said. “Jarrod currently interns for a known company here in town, and after seeing the work he has done, Archer & Hound felt good about utilizing Jarrod’s talent.”

Markarian said this opportunity is just one of many that students at Fresno Christian can become involved in that sets the school apart from their local counterparts.

“In the second commercial, we were emphasizing the one-on-one relationships you encounter with the upper elementary,” Markarian continued. “We used a survey on what parents value the most in school. The number one answer was having close parent-teacher relationships- not just through email, but actual conversations. The high school commercial focused on all the activities available to students. You can be in jazz band or chapel band, you can play any sports, you can be a leader in leadership class. All these different things you can do in one day that you can’t do at a public school.”

Although he is now comfortable filming professionally, Markarian initially had reservations.

“I interned for Windsong starting in June of 2016, starting with a couple shoots,” Markarian said. “After a couple shoots, they turned around and offered me a job as assistant editor at Windsong. Working in a professional environment, say Windsong, was a little intimidating at first. I mean, you’re working with thousands of dollars in equipment, and you’re working with industry professionals who’ve been there 20 years, and they look at you like, ‘Wow, you’re 17 years old, what are you doing here?’ You come to get used to it once you realize you have a place there and they want you there.”

Markarian also mentioned the impacts Fresno Christian teachers had on him, specifically ones in charge of The Feather. He says they taught him what he needed to know to become a videographer and a journalist.

“The teachers that helped me were Mrs. Friesen and Mr. (Greg) Stobbe,” Markarian said. “They helped both my writing and photography skills. Mrs. Friesen helped me with camera skills more than anything; she basically made it my second nature through her teaching and workshops. She gave me a great foundation of camera skills, and Stobbe helped me a ton with writing through English classes, and just critiqued the hell out of everything I would write; he would just rip me to shreds (with constructive criticism).”

Feather adviser Stobbe observed Markarian’s growth over his high school years, and believes he is ready to have a career in video journalism.  

“Jarrod is a classic student who maximizes his passion and interest from freshman to senior year at Fresno Christian,” Stobbe said. “He is an example of someone who said, ‘I can’t write well’ and decided he wanted to get better, and that’s why he joined journalism. He parlayed that increased interest in writing into his newfound passion in front of a camera. I had the privilege of walking him through his early struggles with writing and watching him become successful with video production. He’s ready to take the next step in becoming a college student who can aspire to reach his ever increasing goals.”

To view Markarian’s work, visit his website.

The commercials will run from May through September on Fresno Christian social media, as part of an ongoing effort to boost enrollment.

For another feature, read Seniors use portfolio as “exit ticket”.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @Will_VanderKooi and email: Will Vander Kooi.

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