Written By: Alex Kartman | @ajkartman
Director of Digital Sports Production & Instructor of TCOM
Ball State Sports Link

Monday night (Feb. 8), Ball State Sports Link welcomed alum Josh Blessing (2013) to Skype with current students.

Blessing’s journey from Sports Link landed him an internship and now a full-time job with University of Minnesota’s Gopher Digital Productions.

Blessing shared his experiences with students, and the reputation Sports Link carries around the country.

“I brought everything I learned at Sports Link to Minnesota. Everyone I talk to in the Big Ten Conference knows exactly who Sports Link is and what you’re doing.”

Blessing continues to push his creative limits at Minnesota. Soon after joining Gopher Digital Productions, he helped conceive Brick by Brick, a weekly all-access Gopher football web series, in addition to Raise the Barn, a weekly all-access Gopher men’s basketball web series.

“Look around you at stuff that is going on to find new creative content. Push the creativity as far as you can. For game recaps, you have to add cutaways, to fans, to benches, to creative shots. Anyone can put together highlights. The biggest way to take your intro videos to the next level is to add stylization with After Effects. Anyone can do basic editing with cuts, speed ramping, and colorization.”

In addition to the popular web series, Blessing also creates vibrant intro videos for most Gopher sports.

He currently pushes to create more in-depth story content to feature the stories of all Gopher athletes.

Blessing parted with the advice many might take for granted at smaller schools, like Ball State.

“Take advantage of the access. You don’t get that at higher levels… The people higher up don’t understand the work that goes into creative videos. It’s tough for me to half-ass something. When it gets down to it, it’s still your name on the work. Realize how good you have it. Sports Link is an elite program. There’s a reason a school down south is trying to play catch up. Do not settle.”