Every day, teachers at Sierra Vista High School play the school announcements for the entire student body to watch in order to put out information on sports, clubs, and upcoming events. The students in video production work hard to make the school announcements and learn new aspects of video production every day from their experience and their teacher, Ms. Camie Noll.
Three classes work on the school announcements. Ms. Noll puts the call sheet for the day up on the board at the beginning of class. Video production students voluntarily sign up for each roll on the call sheet.
In video production, a variety of jobs work with one another in order to create a successful show. When creating an entertaining and informative broadcast, each role must be filled to ensure success. Jobs include producer, director, cinematographer, chief editor, anchors, teleprompter operator, graphic designers, quote of the day, script writers, and reporters.
The producer ensures that all positions are completing their duties and filling in where necessary in order to create a show. The director controls the overall look and vision of that day’s broadcast. The cinematographer operates the camera during the broadcast and uploads completed footage to the correct folder in the Vista Station News Google drive. The graphic designer creates original graphics to highlight information in the script. The author of the quote of the day chooses a quote that is relevant and inspirational to high schoolers. The chief editor takes everyone else’s work and turns it into a finished product.
The anchors appear as the on air-talent delivering the news during the broadcast. Students who sign up to anchor do not expect to learn anything while being an anchor. Ivanna Hernandez (12), a student who appeared as an anchor regularly, explains, “I’ve learned how to communicate with people better and how to be professional on camera.” The teleprompter operator loads the correct script into the teleprompter website and controls the part of the script visible to the anchors while reading. The scriptwriter updates the script for the assigned day with correct information, and the reporter creates the news packages seen on Vista Station News.
The variety of roles allow students to learn new skills they can use when pursuing a career in multimedia. Kiana Acosta-Fualaau (10) describes, “I’ve learned more about the process of having a career in multimedia and roles in video production in movies, series, and more.”
Some students in video production take the opportunity to become more involved in video production outside of school. Ezekiel Day (10) started doing video production in seventh grade. Day explains, “I definitely learned useful things in video production because it has inspired me to tour new stations.” He received an opportunity to tour Fox 5. Day states, “I got to see the control room where they monitor everything and talk to the anchors. I got to watch a meteorologist do the weather and got to see the editing bay where they brainstorm ideas while editing at the same time.” After his experience touring Fox 5, he plans on pursuing a career in multimedia after high school.
Aside from learning the basic skills to make a successful broadcast, video production also allows students to learn new skills that can be useful outside of multimedia careers. The class helps students become comfortable with the uncomfortable. Franzain Galindo (11) reveals, “Aside from basic skills in producing shows, I have also learned to venture outside my comfort zone. This class has really taught me how to socialize and feel comfortable stepping out of my bubble.”
Ms. Noll, the video production advisor, hopes that all the video production students learn valuable lessons they can use outside of video production. Ms. Noll explains, “I think one of the best things they can learn in video production to benefit them outside of video production is how to problem solve because when we are editing and filming, we always have issues come up and sometimes you have to think on your feet to figure out how you’re going to problem solve and fix the issue. So if you get that skill, even if you’re not doing it for video production, it’s always a skill you can use in life.”
Recently, students from video production, joined by students part of the Future Business Leaders of America Club and students in the cybersecurity CTE class, went on a week-long trip to Reno and competed against other schools for spots in the finals. Students chose from a variety of events to compete in, such as broadcast journalism, advertising, cyber security, personal finance and much more.
Four students from video production placed in the finals. They utilized the skills they learned over the years in video production to ensure their success. Ivanna Hernandez and Elijah Jurolan (11) placed third in the broadcast journalism event and Matthew Chen (11) and Renee Albertson (11) placed fifth in the broadcast journalism event.
Many students benefited from taking the video production class. Matthew Chen states, “I would go as far as saying that this course was the most useful course I’ve ever taken. Both the technical skills and soft skills I learned will be integral in both my professional life and also personal life.”
The Video Production CTE classes provide students an idea of how making a news broadcast would be like outside of school and the different skills needed to make a successful broadcast. If students are interested in this CTE class, they can email Ms. Noll for more information on the class or contact their counselors to enroll.
