EU Digital Media Students ‘Feel the Base’

Elmhurst University digital media students are giving young musicians their time in the spotlight, partnering with a nonprofit to help bring a special project to life. 

The BASE Chicago is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago’s West Side that is working to combine sports and academics to make a positive impact on the lives of students and their families. While they are sports-based at heart, they couldn’t pass up a melodic opportunity when Jeremy Renner and Disney+ rolled into town to give them the surprise of a lifetime. 

As part of his show “Rennervations,” Renner repurposed an old tour bus into a music studio on wheels, so that students who participate in The BASE Chicago’s music programs would have a chance to record and produce their original songs. 

That’s where Kristyn Jo Benedyk came in. Benedyk, the head of the digital media department here at EU, was working on the advisory board for The BASE and began dreaming up a way they could fully utilize the studio-on-wheels and turn it into arts-based programming. 

“I am a big believer in looking around at what resources you have, and that could be time, talent, financial, anything. Then looking around your community and asking, “Where can I put these resources to use to make a difference?” said Benedyk. “And that all came together in a phone call to the head of The BASE that I believe went something like this, ‘So I have this crazy idea…’ luckily The BASE said yes.” 

Project “Feel the Base,” partners EU digital media students with middle school students from the Leif Ericson Academy in West Garfield Park, sponsored by The BASE Chicago. These students, all with an ear for music, take their ideas for original songs, write them, record them, and produce music videos to go along with them. 

Through the direction of digital media professors John Klein and Benedyk, EU digital media students have been providing their time, resources, and knowledge to assist in designing and directing the music videos tied to the songs, helping the Leif Ericson students bring their visions to life.  

Sarah Glees, multimedia editor for The Leader, is a producer for the music videos and said she’s thrilled with how the project is coming along. 

“I feel like being a producer is just like you’re a cheerleader for everyone. So I’m always just like, so excited for them and getting to see what they do,” said Glees, reflecting on the work they’ve done so far. “I love getting to help make that happen.”

Currently, the project is in the filming stage, with both sets of students coming together to bring the songs to life after a few months of work, writing, and recording. Benedyk says they are gearing up to begin post-production, preparing the music videos for their premiere this summer. 

Klein said the project is highly fulfilling and that it has been a great opportunity for both sets of students to collaborate meaningfully. 

“The Elmhurst students who are directing the music videos or who are on set for the music videos, helping out, I feel like they have grown so much as people and as creative people,” Klein said. “I also think they’ve gotten to really see how important and how valuable it is to the middle school students that they’re helping out.”

Klein continued explaining this impact. 

“For some of these students, this is like a real taste of college on some level,” Klein explained. “You can see some of these middle school students who are like, this is like the time of their lives, they’re living their best life.”

Eric Davis, executive director of The BASE Chicago, said that around the time he first started talking about a collaboration with Benedyk and EU, The BASE wasn’t sure they would have the manpower to place programming in the Leif Ericson Academy. 

Ultimately, though, Davis said the decision was a no-brainer. 

“Within the swoop of one day, we went from 300 some-odd kids to 800 kids,” Davis said. “Because we adopted Leif Ericson School and said, no, we’ll give the programming. We’re in the community. It’s important that they see us. And we figured that we would just figure it out.”

Three years ago, the Leif Ericson Academy was better known as the Leif Ericson Arts Academy, but their funding was ultimately cut, leaving students with a love for art but no outlet through which to express their creativity.

Davis mentioned that this project helped give them that outlet. 

“They weren’t able to do arts programming,” Davis said. “So it was almost like a godsend that all of this came together. To say it was amazing, doesn’t give it enough credit.”

Davis also commented on the impact the project has had on everyone involved. 

“It’s been heartwarming,” Davis said. “It’s been impactful for our kids in the West Garfield Park community, but I think it has been equally as impactful for the students from Elmhurst University.”

Davis continued, “I think what we’ve done here is we’ve created a prototype of what arts can look like in schools, not just here in Chicago, but across the country. Having young people tell their story about their community humanizes them, it empowers them. I think just organically coming together with open hearts, that’s what created this. If Elmhurst University and The BASE and Leif Ericson School sat down and discussed this and said, ‘This is what we’re going to create,’ we would have never created this.”

Klein is similarly grateful for the way the collaboration has taken shape and wants to thank EU for its support. 

“There’s no way we could have made this project what it is, but we’ve had such support from the administration to have the equipment that made this program possible,” Klein said. “I think it speaks to how quickly the digital media program is growing and how much more we hope to grow it with similar kinds of activities in the future.” 

According to Benedyk, there are already plans in place for taking the program to the next level. 

“We already have talked about the ways we plan to grow the program,” Benedyk said. “For example, we are partnering with The Recording Academy next year, and we recently met with a record label about releasing the students’ songs.”

The seven music videos the students collaborate on as part of “Feel the Base” will premiere at the Music Box Theatre on June 5. 

Benedyk is looking forward to their release. 

“Everyone on June 5 is going to be absolutely blown away by these music videos,” said Benedyk. “These are MTV-quality videos our EU students are making, and I can’t wait for the rest of the world to be in awe of them the way I have been watching them throughout this process.” 

Tickets to the “Feel the Base” premiere event are free and available on the Music Box Theatre’s website.