PC: Mohammed C A

Ever wonder how when you come back from a trip, the way back home seems shorter than the time it took to reach there? This is because our brains take longer to process new information, and the cognitive load it takes on the way back is lesser, so it feels like time passes faster. This highlights the fact that time is subjective. Time bends and stretches—fleeting when we need it most, and seemingly endless when we don’t. It is an essential part of our lives. We’re always running behind it, regretting times where we didn’t spend it well, and trying to relive moments over and over again. 

So much so that someone created photographs, which led to videos, and other forms of media that we now have today. With the development of phone cameras, sharing media is a major part of our lives, with social media platforms designed specifically to cater to this desire to share and preserve moments. The ability to save a moment, freeze it, and being able to look at it over and over again, is magic in my opinion. The RSET Media Team does justice to it, by being an integral part of all events that occur on our campus. 

Even if you have a good phone camera, it’s not like anyone can just waltz onto stage mid-performance without earning a lot of annoyed looks from the rest of the audience. The Media Team though? They’ve got both professional and good phone cameras—and they know how to use them. Asking them to take photos of you and your friends mid-event, posing awkwardly while trying to look candid, and waiting eagerly for the photo drive to show up on Whatsapp—is a core memory. But other than these very, cough, noble reasons, the photo drive is of high importance because it is used in official college media. In events that are spread out over 3 days like Bharatham, the team, which consists of members from all years, is seen all over campus, making sure everything is covered. Without them, we won’t have any proof that anything happened, and memories won’t be captured—which, in my opinion, is a pretty big deal.

During the end semester break this year, we interviewed Vian Vinod, a recent graduate and former Media Team Lead, to know more about the inner workings of the club. 

With a strong passion for media and design, he improved his skills and earned his spot in the club. He is adept at using numerous design software, and from our conversation, it was evident that he had not only brought in technical knowledge, he also had a vision for the club—leaving a lasting impact on it as the Lead.

When asked about dealing with large, chaotic crowds in events like Bharatham, he mentioned that when people see them with a camera, they usually move out of the way. Being in the media team gives them access to a lot of places—they can even climb on desks to get the best possible angle. 

The one event he’s most proud of covering? “Confluence”, he said, without skipping a beat. The Media Team’s coverage of the whole event is commendable. “More than twenty people were covering the event simultaneously, and we took around thirty thousand plus photos, and we also partnered with Manorama Online—their features, digital outreach was with our collaboration.” 

March 2025 marked an important checkpoint for the Media Team—it became an official club. Though they haven’t made a lot of waves beyond college, they do have a strong impact on the students. “From the confused faces at Deeksharambam to the tear filled eyes at Samavarthanam, the media team is there—silently capturing everything”, he said. The Media Team is still stepping out, having a lot more to do, slowly making its mark around us—with the permission of the college, of course. 

He admitted that since the club is relatively new, they haven’t gone about things in an official manner. Despite that, before any event, a few members and Vian would allocate positions to the rest of the team members, which ensured full coverage of the event. A drive link would be shared and they would upload their files to it. 

“If you have passion, you have to join”, he said, when asked to advise future members. “Media Team is a place where you can grow. You can come with the most basic of skills”. He mentored his juniors and was proud to share that they’re doing much better, some even surpassing him.

Good content means toiling day and night looking for that perfect shot and that one little missing piece to give a reel that subtle yet satisfying touch of completion. When asked about the process and effort put into the content churned out by the media team, Vian had quite a bit to share.

He said that when it comes to a pre-planned and scripted reel, the process is pretty straightforward. They decide the location, equipment, and coordinate with the actors (if any), and they do the usual “shoot review repeat”. It’s carried out in a planned-out, systematic way.

But when it comes to montage videos, such as the day-1 or day-2 recap videos for Bharatham, it’s a whole different scene. In such a chaotic and vibrant event, scripting and planning is not an option. They have no choice but to make do with existing footage captured on-the-fly, which is then put together with a dash of creativity and plenty of effort by the editors.

The Media Team is one team that is hidden in plain sight, they may never be on stage holding a trophy, but without them, most events wouldn’t even look like they happened. Vian accurately stated how this team is the lifeline of most events in Rajagiri. Through archiving events with care, not just for memories, but also documentation, the Media team works tirelessly behind the scenes to make every event not only run smoothly, but also look like a masterpiece by the time it hits your Instagram page.

This brings up a very real question, are these talents—the ability to turn a camera into a portal and stitch together footage into stories—something you’re born with? or are they developed through constant learning and perseverance?

To this question, Vian said that he, personally, had taken courses. Not certifications, but YouTube tutorials and other similar content. He also credited the faculty for being thoroughly supportive in their ambitions. He said how when he expressed his interest in moving deeper into the field of photography and media, he got what he called “360° support.” From real world resources to connections and contacts, the faculty handed everything to him on a silver platter, and for this, he is very grateful.

Vian had very humble beginnings in the Media Team, he obviously didn’t join as the all-powerful lead. He talked about how he started off as an “unofficial member,” how he was called on to handle media in other clubs he volunteered in, and he slowly moved towards being the designated media person. What sealed the deal for him was his IEDC Summit experience, the all-nighters and intense organizing put him directly on track to his current position.

Vian is a person who could easily be described as a “Jack of all trades.” If you’re in Rajagiri and don’t know Vian, you’ve probably been living under a rock. He’s everywhere from leading IEDC to running most of the events in college. He somehow manages to have a hand in more things than you probably know.

And it’s only natural to ask how a person could find time to juggle all these responsibilities while also balancing academics. When asked this, Vian did not sugarcoat it, he agreed that it has been a major struggle. There have been countless nights when he went to bed at night still in his uniform, buried in all the work organizing events and managing clubs. From pulling all-nighters, to being available 24/7 for HackS’us. It was indeed a struggle for him to manage everything all at once. Being in as many positions as him, it is only expected that all your free time would go into performing at your best in all those positions.

This doesn’t mean that it wasn’t enjoyable though, despite the chaos and stress, he emphasized that there was not one moment where he regretted it, he thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it, including the overnight brainstorms and deadline panics. And that is honestly what college life is, it’s caffeine induced all-nighters to complete an assignment after spending your day doing literally everything else.

To wrap things up, we asked him who the “behind-the-scenes workers” were, the ones not walking around in a black shirt holding a camera in every event. And without missing a beat, he gave credit where it’s due—the editors.

None of the reels, montages or highlight clips would be possible without their post production crew, the people buried in timelines and colour-grading layers. Snapping a beautiful photo or capturing a video is one thing, but it’s a whole different set of skills that go into stitching this content together into something that can show the same beauty and energy of the event. And it is this work that the Media team’s post production crew pulls off beautifully.

In the end, what the Media team does isn’t just about clicking photos or sending a drive link two days after an event, it’s about storytelling. Capturing the spirit of events and telling every story as it unfolded, preserving the excitement and amplifying the beauty. Vian gave us a firsthand glimpse into the many hours of work and sleepless nights behind each reel that appears on your feed. It’s a craft that demands both technical skills and a level of emotional intuition to recognize moments that matter and to present them in a way that evokes the same emotions as the first time. A craft the media team will honour, preserving beauty and capturing emotions.