Editor’s note: Raffaella Vogt is a contributing writer for the Daily. Vogt was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
Hubbub Studios is home to a video series that explores current and pressing urban environment research and issues in order to distill them into easy-to-follow videos. Hubbub is led by Professor Justin Hollander of the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning in collaboration with some of his students. They are offering new content that presents research in a fun, engaging and accessible way.
Since its first video in 2018, Hubbub Studios now has eight episodes, covering a range of topics from “Urban Social Listening” to its newest episode, “Blockchain and Web3 Technology in Urban Planning,” released on Jan. 20.
In an interview with the Daily, Hollander explained that Hubbub was created to share department research and to educate students about the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning.
“I realized that the young people that I was meeting in the classroom, especially before they got to college, spent a lot of time watching videos, and so I thought that this would be another way for us to tell the story about what we’re doing here at Tufts … in a fun, engaging and hopefully funny format,” Hollander said.
While the research behind the videos is by Hollander and his department, the Hubbub Studios videos are written, filmed and produced in collaboration with Tufts students.
“[The students] know my vision, my goal, and I’m fortunate that the university provides me with some resources to support my research, and so I have a very small amount of funding,” he said. “I’m able to hire them to be able to just come up with the concepts based on recent research that I’ve been part of.”
These videos are conceptualized through Hollander sharing his current projects and research with students, asking if any resonate with them and could be turned into a compelling video.
“What I’ve always done with my students is, I tell them about a bunch of projects. I send them some articles and papers [or] reports and say, ‘What do you think?’” he explained. “They have always picked the kind of topics that they thought would resonate and would be funny and an interesting watch.”
Sada Schumann, a sophomore combined degree student majoring in environmental studies and studio art, recently joined Hollander’s team as a video producer and director. She described the process behind creating Hubbub Studios’ newest episode.
“That video was about blockchain and Web3 technology, which are cryptocurrency concepts, and how those can be applied in an urban planning sphere to help efficiency and incentivize community involvement,” Schumann said.
Schumann explained that the first step in the creation process is simplifying the research for a broader audience.
“First, we start kind of looking at studies and research and then working on translating that into something that is a little bit simpler and kind of takes out a lot of the technical vocabulary. … It’s taking the paper and bringing it down to the essence: ‘What is this trying to say?’” Schumann said.
From there, Schumann, alongside sophomore Gus Gladstein, worked on writing a script for the episode, which featured a scenario model.
“We wanted it to sit a little bit more in the entertainment space but still be based on things that are factual and educational,” Schumann said.
Not having engaged with cryptocurrency projects beforehand, Schumann collaborated with Hollander throughout the creative process. Hollander also emphasized the collaborative nature of Hubbub Studios.
“Sometimes I’ve been, over the years, involved in helping to give them some guidance, but I find the most successful episodes are where they really just run with it,” he said.
Students like Schumann not only produce and write but also are involved as actors, helping bring each episode to life.
“A goal we want to work towards is, ‘How do we engage the Tufts community at large? How do we get people from very different areas involved and interested in the project?’” Schumann said.
Raffaella Vogt, a third-year majoring in studio art who was recruited by Schumann, was an actor in the latest episode and is a graphic designer for Hubbub Studios. She described the filming experience and her acting role.
“[The script and production run-down] was super helpful for … nailing down who I was going to be as city councilor, and what my values and aligned goals were with the rest of the cast,” Vogt said.
Vogt also noted that student actors were able to put their own spins on roles and not always strictly stick to the script.
“The other actors took really fun creative liberties and experimented a lot with their characters. It was cool to see them be able to take their lines, mess with them and put them in a silly voice or cater them to be more like their characters,” she said.
After filming is wrapped, the episodes are edited and produced. Schumann explained how it pushed her to learn new animation and graphics skills.
“It takes a really long time to make everything perfect because there’s just so many details to consider, and I think our concept was based a lot on being able to explain things through graphics and through voiceovers,” she said.
The “Blockchain and Web3 Technology in Urban Planning” episode was screened at an event hosted by the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning on Feb. 3. The screening featured a meet and greet with the actors and brought together students and faculty from across departments.
“Talking with people at that event, it really was people from everywhere. Most of them had taken an urban planning class or had thought about those ideas,” Schumann said. “It really is applicable to just about everything you could be interested in. I’m an art student, and I’m finding ways that it is applicable to me.”
The feedback from the screening is valuable for future Hubbub Studios projects.
“Getting a sense of those reactions helps inform my next project [by] seeing what people latch onto, and what people like or what was confusing … [and] getting to know different people who might want to act in the future, might have an idea for a next episode,” Schumann said.
Since the launch, students have expressed interest in joining Hubbub Studios.
“I’ve had students come up to me and say they want to now volunteer and help out and be part of it. So I think the word is really starting to get out,” Hollander said.
From Hubbub Studios’ videos, Vogt hopes that people gain an understanding of urban planning, emphasizing that it involves not only evolving technology but also psychology, engineering, finance and natural sciences, all of which impact our daily lives.
“Being able to cover such an interdisciplinary field of all these different studies really makes it a rich thing that I hope a lot of people will understand has more dimensions than it seems through the Hubbub videos,” Vogt said.
Episodes are currently available through the Hubbub Studios website and YouTube channel. Schumann also noted that they want to broaden their outreach to new platforms.
“We’re in the process of developing an Instagram … [and] we want to break a little bit more into the short form video space, because that’s a way to grab that initial audience,” she said.
Looking to the future of Hubbub Studios, Hollander said that they are going to continue to innovate through collaboration with students.
“We’re going to tap into the creative ideas of the students that are amongst us here at Tufts and see what they think are better ways to tell stories that are going to be engaging and if they’re going to help spread those ideas,” he said.
