Student-created ads selected to promote the Buick Invitational Golf Tournament

CONTACT: Melinda Finn
Communications Office
760-744-1150 ext. 2365

CONTACT: Pat Hahn
Associate Professor, Communications Department
760-744-1150 ext. 2964

SAN MARCOS (January 22, 2008) – For the second year in a row, Palomar College students are playing an important role in the Buick Invitational PGA TOUR Golf Tournament, taking place Jan. 21-27 at Torrey Pines.

The Century Club of San Diego, the organizing body of the Buick Invitational, chose to enlist the talents of Palomar College radio and television (RTV) students to advertise the golf tournament. The resulting student-produced commercials are currently being broadcast on radio and television stations throughout the local San Diego area, and will continue throughout the tournament.

Palomar College was selected last year from a group of colleges in the San Diego area to produce commercials for the golf event after Pat Hahn, associate professor of Palomar’s Communications Department, was interviewed about Palomar’s RTV program. Other colleges’ and universities’ radio and television programs were also researched at that time by the Century Club/Buick Invitational, but Palomar was chosen because of its experience in working on professional projects.

Raquel Licuan, marketing communications manager for the Buick Invitational, said, “Because we had such a successful relationship with Palomar last year, we didn’t even consider other colleges this time around. Palomar was at the forefront. Working with Pat Hahn was phenomenal, as was working with the students.”

The students who produced this year’s commercials are Shani Dharmasena and Kevin London, both Escondido residents. Dharmasena was enrolled fall semester in Hahn’s RTV 270, Digital Video Editing class, and London was enrolled in RTV 110, Broadcast Writing and Producing, taught by Garrett Chaffin-Quiray. The winning combination of editing and script was selected by the Century Club from entries submitted by 15 video editing students and 19 broadcast writing students.

Dharmasena said that the students in the digital video editing class were given the assignment early in the fall semester to come up with two 30-second TV commercials and two 60-second radio commercials, using 12 hours of footage from last year’s tournament provided by the PGA through the Century Club.
The students faced some unexpected challenges. “We were given close to three weeks to do this project,” Dharmasena said. “However, this was all happening amidst the fires that took place in San Diego.” She and her family were evacuated from their home, and since the fires caused Palomar to close for a week, she and the other students missed valuable time working on the project.
When classes at Palomar resumed, Dharmasena said, “I was rather disoriented,” and she had a difficult time working on the commercial. “My teacher [Hahn], however, did not give up on me. He pushed me from the beginning and motivated me to keep going. I had less than three days to work on the four commercials. I got my act together and bought myself some beef jerky and coffee and worked my heart out,” she said, and was able to submit her commercials on time.
Dharmasena, who attended high school in Sri Lanka, started at Palomar studying graphic design. She decided to take the digital editing class based on the reviews by her friends. “I just got into the editing field last semester and simply loved it!” She is hoping to transfer to USC and study cinematography. “I think I have found my calling and someday hope to be a successful film editor,” she said.

London, who came up with the script for the commercials, said he and his classmates in Chaffin-Quiray’s Broadcast Writing and Producing class were given a few predefined elements upon which they were to build an engaging script. The script was to include factual information, such as when and where the tournament would be held, along with mention of the sponsors, and, as with Dharmasena, everything had to fit within 30-second and 60-second time slots.

When asked why he thought his script was chosen, London suggested that his copy was “crowd based” and focused on the event being accessible to the general public, not just VIPs. London, who graduated from Rancho Bernardo High School, said that being part of this project was “inspiring and improved my self-confidence.” Through the process of working on the commercials and then having his script chosen, “I discovered that I’m a strong writer,” he said.

Chaffin-Quiray commented, "The basic skill for all creative writing is learning to imagine what an audience finds provocative. Through this Buick Invitational project our students learned to apply that core bit of imagination to radio and TV production, and transform a classroom project into real world, professional results."

London’s future plans include transferring to a university, such as Chapman, San Diego State or UCLA and studying cinematography. Eventually he would like to become a photography director for feature films.

Licuan said that when the Century Club decided last year to give local college students the unique opportunity to design their own commercials, the results were quite successful. “We wanted to appeal to a broader demographic, and the Palomar-produced commercials did just what we wanted, and more,” she said.
The Century Club, known for its philanthropic efforts, donated a record $2.3 million to more than 200 San Diego based charity organizations and schools from the net proceeds of the 2007 Buick Invitational.

Palomar College offers degrees in radio and television, digital video, and cinema, as well as transfer programs preparing students for bachelor’s degrees in these fields. More information may be obtained by visiting the college website, www.palomar.edu/communications/.


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