An idea hatched between friends last winter has, for three CMA students, paid off big time.

Three weeks ago, cinema and media arts majors junior Jeremy Davidson and seniors Michael “Danger” Kilpatrick and Christopher Irwin found out that they placed third in Shure’s Fantastic Scholastic Recording Competition. Davidson and Kilpatrick were studying at the Contemporary Music Center in Martha’s Vineyard last semester when they first heard about the competition from a Shure representative. Davidson and Kilpatrick enlisted the help of Irwin as their third team member.

After filling out all of the paperwork, they were entered into the drawing which would determine which schools got to compete in the contest. Out of about 20 schools, 10 were chosen to compete by a random drawing.

As part of the contest, Davidson, Kilpatrick and Irwin were provided with a state-of-the-art microphone package worth $12,000 with which to record. One of the main components of the competition was microphone placement and setup.

“We had to take pictures of every mic setup for the judges,” said Irwin.

The threesome recorded “Awake and Breathing,” a song written and performed by Vespers.

They spent three days recording and more than 50 hours working on the recording, according to Davidson. Then all that was left to do was wait for the official word from the judges.

“We actually were not supposed to find out the results until May 9, so we actually found out early, which was cool,” said Davidson.

Grammy and Tony award-winning professionals with gold- and platinum-selling records judged the competition. The entrants received feedback sheets from the judges with written comments about their work. All three agreed that the comments were very helpful.

“It was a mixed feeling,” said Kilpatrick about their third-place finish. “We had listened to last year’s first-place winner and we thought, ‘we can beat that.’”

But even without the top prize, the recognition is significant.

“I was really excited that we got third because it puts Biola on the map,” Davidson said.

The contest has also helped to polish the team’s audio skills.

“I can tell there is a difference already in things I have recorded since then, even though that was just three weeks ago,” Davidson said.

Each member of the team won a set of top-of-the-line Shure headphones.

“They are sweet for recording,” Kilpatrick said. “I bought a cheaper pair for $100 once, and they broke.”

Because they placed third, Shure will donate a $1,000 scholarship to the cinema and media arts department. Davidson said he plans to apply for the scholarship. Kilpatrick, Irwin and Davidson are all studying the audio emphasis of the CMA major and are looking forward to careers in the music industry or working on music for film.

You can listen to their recording online at www.biola.edu.