The Maverick Network, one of the newest projects pursued by Colorado Mesa University (CMU), has launched as a university-centered streaming service.
A proof-of-concept project, the Maverick Network debuted with three shows containing a few short episodes, including the documentary series Making Mavericks, an outdoors-focused Maverick Challenge series, and making-of series Script Flip.
“I really enjoyed it. All of the people that I met were super nice, and obviously being in that has created more opportunities to be able to talk about my experience,” CMU freshman Taylor Berry said.
Berry was the focus of an episode of Making Mavericks, which follows a particular CMU student for each episode, and tells a part of their story.
“It was really interesting to see behind the scenes of what it’s like to make a series like that. Obviously you see them on Netflix and stuff like that, but being in it is something completely different,” Berry said.
“We know that video content is consumed voraciously — YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, you name it. We knew that COVID impacted our ability to have prospective students and parents visit, or for us to visit them at their schools/communities. We wanted to strike an emotional chord,” Executive Director of Marketing Mike Mansheim said in an email statement to The Criterion.
The university is working with a Denver-based creative agency named Defy Them All for the production of episodes.
“Production was crazy. If you can imagine filming 15 episodes within a week, that kind of gives you an idea of how hectic it was through production,” CMU Videographer Bronson Henriques said.
The project was conceived over the summer, and show concepts were being developed in August – a timeline of just a few months.
Henriques helped coordinate the various shoots. “We really wanted to brand it as its own thing. And I think when you attach a name to it, I think it really adds value, rather than just saying it’s just another video on YouTube.”
“I think it’s just exciting to kind of put out a different style of media – we can produce a lot of things, we can produce commercials to recruit, but I think that this gives that kind of personable feel to media,” Acting Special Projects Coordinator Connor Larrick said. He assisted during the filming process.
All of the planned episodes will be released by the end of the semester.
“We’ve been on a rocket ship pace to get the initial shows launched, and we’ll reevaluate later this year to see if/where we take it,” Mansheim said.
“I have friends that are going to CU and CSU and other schools around the country, and I’ve never heard of anything like this, of the school bringing in a professional production crew to film their students, and see the life of students,” Berry said.
“We know that CMU students and faculty have incredible stories. And just as CMUnow is our news/story hub, we believed we could create an equally compelling digital space that would provide authentic programming — primarily for prospective students — but also perhaps build community among current students and alumni,” Mansheim said.
