From LIS5313

[edit] Spotlighting Teen TV Production

by Candice Valencia

HTV:Fall 2006 Group Shot by laffy 4k[1]

[edit] Introduction

[edit] TV Production in High Schools Today

Tired of reminding snoozing and chattering students to pay attention to the morning announcements and stand politely for the pledge? Then, maybe it's time to re-think the delivery of these important announcements. A number of high schools today have discovered that valuable instructional opportunities are wasted when the daily school announcements consist of the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the school secretary reading the day's news over the Public Address System. These traditional methods are not only boring, but ineffective. How can we expect students to take interest in the morning announcements when they lack creativity and visual appeal? Today's high school students are accustomed to watching videos loaded with special effects, and many have become pretty savvy at creating their own YouTube videos and MySpace media pages. It makes sense, then, to solicit their creative interests and expertise in producing the school's daily news announcements.

Schools like Brighton High School in Rochester, New York, Granite City High School in Granite City, Illinois, and North Port High School in North Port, Florida have done just that. Tapping into their students' creativity and interest in technology, they offer a television production course that provides students with the chance to create and star in the school's daily news show. More than an opportunity to give students the face time and moments of stardom they crave, these television production courses serve as an ideal way to teach students the communications, critical thinking, and new media literacy skills needed for life-long success.

Richard Tschorke, Brighton High's television instructor, also believes experiences in these classes train students to become organized and responsible workers. "The show starts at 7:45, no matter if I or anyone on my staff has finished editing a video, writing an announcement or creating the graphics," he says (Fermlin, 2007, p. 2). Students in production courses such as Mr. Tschork's work under the pressure of project deadlines daily. Senior student Ted Levine, the executive producer of Brighton High's television show, acknowledges that "producing the show can be a demanding job," but feels his class is learning valuable career skills, while having a great deal of fun in the process (Fermlin, 2007, p. 2).

[edit] A New Era of Teen TV

LMG High Def Video Package by Rob Lee[2]

Television production in American school systems has come along way since the advent of the media literacy movement and the start of the first elementary school TV studio during the 1970’s (Barnouw, n.d.). Richard Tschorke can remember first developing his program at Brighton High School in 1987 with only 2 camcorders and a table in place of a desk for production equipment. Over the past twenty years, with the help of his students, Tschorke has developed a production studio of professional caliber with digital equipment, a green screen, a separate director’s booth and 3 news anchors (Fermin, 2007).

Birchland Park Middle School in Long Meadow, Massachussetts and several other middle schools have also created television production classes with expensive equipment and production sets. Jim O’Hearn began Birchland Park’s program in 1996. Just two years later, he was pleased to discover that the program's immense popularity had convinced the school to draw up blue prints for a new 8-room suite studio building (Televisionaries, 2003).

While more and more middle schools are beginning to take an avid interest in TV production, these classes at the high school level are especially becoming sophisticated. Students are learning to operate state-of-the-art equipment used by professional adults. Just look at Oak Ridge High School in Orlando, Florida, where 100 television production students have the unique opportunity to work in a 1600 square foot composite studio with an attached control room and classroom.

In Oak Ridge's studio, students create polished television productions using digital production techniques combined with live analog shots. Their mix of virtual set technology from Serious Magic’s Ultra Software and live elements allows them to create the appearance of a completely new studio. Crew members broadcast the school television show live each morning via their intra-school cable television system to more than 2300 students, and so far, their work has been a tremendous success. In fact, the program has such a draw that the instructor conducts student body auditions each year for his 13-15 member daily news crew (Orange County Public Schools, 2005).

Schools today have recent developments in software and technology to thank for these improvements to their television production courses. Doug Green at Aviara Oaks Middle School knows just how fortunate his school is to have Trinity’s All-In-One PC-based Solution, which performs all of the functions of traditional studio equipment with a fraction of the cost (Middle schools produce network style news casts, 2000). This type of software system allows students to produce pre-recorded programs that rival television networks with their Hollywood style effects. More importantly, it spares students a great deal of time and trouble in producing their television productions. As a result, a number of student television production teams are finding the time to cover more than simple announcements on their school morning shows. In addition to the daily school news, they are airing student skits, footage from school shows and events, coverage of student achievements, lunch menus, current events, and live interviews (Televisionaries, 2003). Television production classes have also worked on distributing their productions to a wider audience through the streaming of their programs on the school website and, in some cases, even broadcasting their school news programs on a local cable channel.

[edit] Getting Started

[edit] Launching a Successful TV Production Course and News Show

Mr. Marks helping his Bay Today production students prepare for the morning announcements by Candice Valencia

[edit] Organizing the Curriculum

If you are interested in starting a television production course at your high school and are unsure of how to structure the curriculum, Loveland and Harrison (2006) recommend choosing one of 2 different models, a 3 Phase Method or 4 Quarter Method, depending on which best suits your school schedule. Students in the final stage of each method have the most experience and will be responsible for producing the school news show.

The 3 Phase Method consists of 36 weeks of instruction in the areas of Pre-Production, Production, and Editing. In Pre-Production class during Phase 1, students focus on the content and process of video communications as they learn basic printing, digital photography, web-page design, desktop publishing, and audio and video production. They also study copyright, legal and ethical concerns relating to video production, storyboarding, and crew needs, while they experiment with creating short news segments, commercials, and other brief video productions. Students in the Phase 2 production class learn about the parts of the camera, lighting, camera movement, audio, teleprompters, chroma key, and animation creation as they explore the technical aspects of production. By Phase 3, students are reading to begin learning advanced editing techniques as they use new production knowledge to add graphics, text, and animation to their class projects. Students also gain experience with different editing systems, production output types, media types, web-based video, video distribution, and streaming.

In the 4 Quarter Method, four different 9-week production classes are offered. During the first 9 weeks, students take a class on pre-production, safety, camera work, and broadcast booth jobs. In this quarter, students will learn how to operate the teleprompter, graphics generators, and the audio console as they practice creating feature news reports and daily school news reports. During the second 9 weeks class, students will gain a basic knowledge of documentaries, commercials, special event taping, and other types of production as they create several projects in these formats. They will also focus on audio recording techniques. Lighting and editing topics are covered during the third 9 weeks, and students are tasked with creating public service announcements, dramas, and a thirty minute television of their own in the studio. By the fourth 9 weeks, students have a basic understanding of video production and are ready to explore different career paths in this field based on their particular area of interest. Students in this final phase serve as the technicians for the video production classes, as well as the on-screen talent for the daily school news show. Before the end of the class, these students will have experience in advanced editing and will have produced senior videos, video yearbooks, and music videos (Loveland, T. & H. Harrison, 2006).

[edit] Student Assignments

When students are properly trained and you are ready to begin work on your school news show, you might consider assigning your students specific production roles in advance, so students have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and the process unfolds smoothly.

School news shows typically require the help of the following:

• Teleprompter: Develops and revises the script for the daily announcements on the show.
• Director: Coordinates and edits the live show. This student also checks to see that the run down sheet is accurate and changes it each day.
• Switcher: Manages the switching board and organizes television content seen by viewers.
• Audio engineer: Operates the audio board during the television show and has knowledge of how to follow the "Rundown Sheet."
• Graphics Technician: Creates and edits the graphics for the school news show.
• Camera operator: Manages camera equipment and films live broadcast; has knowledge of camera set up, lighting principles, and zoom features.
• Floor director: Makes sure equipment is turned on in the morning and the set is ready. This student also checks to see that students are on task and day to day operations are running smoothly.
• News anchors: Serve as the "faces" of the school news show. These students read the scripts and perform the daily television show content.

These student assignments and curriculum models are mere guidelines you may want to use in organizing a television production program at your school. A number of schools find that they do not have the time to delve very deeply into television production and offer a more basic, abbreviated version of the two curriculum models mentioned above. It usually pays off to start small with a program and set reasonable project goals that match your particular time perimeters. If after beginning your program, you find that your classes have the time to venture beyond the production of the daily school announcements, then you can begin assigning students a variety of other special projects to broaden their television production experience.

[edit] Conquering the Expense

For many schools, cost is also a major factor in the quality and breadth of their program. Production equipment can prove incredibly expensive, so you may want to consider exploring alternative sources if you have already squeezed your allotted school budget dry and are unable to afford the technical upgrades necessary for the productions you have planned.

Facing this same obstacle, Phillip Harris, a high school television production instructor in Fairfax County, Virginia, developed the ingenious idea to start a school television production company with the students in his class. As the students, or “employees” in his production company were hired to create videos and commercials for businesses in the community, and to record special events for schools within the district, they earned a small wage and gained valuable experience in the field. At the same time, Harris was thrilled to discover that their company was able to produce enough of a profit to afford all of the production equipment needed for his course; he would no longer need to frustrate his school administration with perpetual requests for additional funds. In fact, between the years of 1995 and 2007, their company had never had a year where they earned less then $35,000, and in 2006 alone they earned more than $51,000 (Harris, 2007).

Harris points out that it only makes sense to take advantage of an opportunity to raise money for course materials, while providing students with outside of school experiences in TV production.

[edit] You are teaching television production as a career. It is logical that the students need to receive real on-the-job experiences to become employable. You can be their "interning" site! (Harris, 2007, p. 13).

Harris acknowledges that organizing a TV production company is a real time investment, but he believes the many rewards more than make up for the costs. He advises that people start small and spread word among colleagues that the school television production company will tape events for them, as well as make duplicate master tapes for parents and students for a small fee. As people find out about these services, business will take off! (Harris, 2007).

If you don’t have the extra time outside of school to devote to a production company venture, then you may also want to look into grants and more traditional fundraisers.

[edit] An Inside Look

[edit] TV Production with Granite City High's Laura Sullivan and North Port High's Kevin Brislin

My interview with Laura Sullivan, the television production instructor at Granite City High School in Illinois, and Kevin Brislin, head of television production at North Port High School in North Port, Florida, convinced me that production of a school television show is not as daunting as it may seem. Despite the fact that their high school students come to their classes with no real production experience, Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Brislin have found that students catch on rather quickly and learn a great deal about production from their collaboration on class projects. They keep their programs manageable by providing their students with formal training on the use of equipment; inviting students and school faculty to assist in generating ideas for show content; allowing beginning students to receive guidance from senior students during the development of their projects; and by setting a reasonable timeline for class projects and sticking to it.

In our interview, Ms. Sullivan expressed that her class has little time for projects outside of the daily news show due to the increased demands of student testing. For this reason, her class produces a lengthier special production every 6 weeks, while focusing primarily on the production of the school’s daily announcements. During the planning stage of their productions, students hold a meeting and develop ideas for content according to current school activities and topics of interest. Ms. Sullivan provides them with a certain amount of freedom in generating ideas for these shows, while at the same time taking certain measures to ensure that all content is school appropriate. Besides “guid[ing] their choices to things [she] know[s] are school appropriate,” Ms. Sullivan requires that students create a formal proposal for any questionable material and present it to the principal for approval. Students in her class are encouraged to act responsibly as they exercise their creativity.

Ms. Sullivan also divides work on productions between teams, which are tasked with developing their own stories. Senior members of the class help these different stories and ideas come to life by acting as Assistant Producers for the show. In order to make sure that students are staying on task and completing their assignments, she assigns one senior member to serve as the “overall producer who keeps track of all the groups.” She feels that organizing the productions in this way simplifies the process, while keeping students on target with project deadlines.

Mr. Brislin at North Port High School also has his students focus the majority of their efforts on the school’s daily broadcast. To make the production of the news show more manageable, he assigns his students clear roles and responsibilities. For his classes, production of a single news broadcast from script to recording takes about an hour. Two anchors, who read the announcements from a script, a floor manager/camera handler, a teleprompter, who develops the script, a switcher, a character generator, and an overall producer, who also manages the sound and lighting, are all part of the behind the scenes action. Over the course of the semester, all of his students will have had hands-on experience in each of the different production roles. This way, they will develop a wide array of experiences in the field. Mr. Brislin explained that he doesn't agree with assigning permanent news anchors, since he wants his students to understand “there is no ‘American Idol’ way to become a news anchor.” He tries to impress upon them that a career as a news anchor is a challenging job, requiring experience in journalism and other areas.

Like Ms. Sullivan, Mr. Brislin also takes certain steps to see that school broadcasts are high quality and school appropriate. His students receive a month of training on the use of their Final Cut Pro Software and other production equipment to include cameras, their switcher, a character generator, mixing board, lighting grid, and dvd player. He also has them create mock broadcasts until he feels they are ready for formal productions. Controversial content is not an issue in his class productions, since “announcements and commercials are usually generated by staff or group sponsors, and all ideas for show content must go through a staff member prior to inclusion in the broadcast.”

By establishing clear rules and procedures for their production course early on and soliciting the help of more experienced students in supervising daily operations, Mr. Brislin and Ms. Sullivan are able to accomplish their instructional goals without becoming overwhelmed in the process.

[edit] Behind the Scenes with Bay Today

Watch a short video by Candice Valencia to see teen TV production in action. Click here to view.

Bay Today is the name of the morning show at Bay High School in Panama City, Florida. As I snapped photos for my video, the student producers shared what they are learning from their experiences in their television production class and what they are enjoying most about being a part of the morning show. Most expressed that they now feel more confident speaking in front of others and have learned a great deal of technical and career readiness skills that they believe will give them an edge when they graduate from high school. One Bay Today student, who plans to become a youth minister after high school, sees an immediate use for the skills he has acquired in this production class, since the ministers at his church frequently put together videos and powerpoints for their services. Another, stated that his experiences in this class have taught him to work under the pressure of deadlines. After spending just 30 minutes as a guest in Bay High's TV production studio, I could easily see that these students were not only enjoying themselves, they were also learning a great deal about technology, organization, and responsibility. More importantly, they were learning to work together as a team--an invalauable skill in today's workplace.

[edit] Worth the Effort

A senior Bay Today producer giving a few pointers by Candice Valencia

Still unsure that initiating a TV production program and student-produced school news show is worth the hassle? Then consider the many rewards that students, teachers, schools, and communities have reaped from these programs.

Students enrolled in television production courses develop community awareness, technological literacy, an improved work ethic, and increased content area knowledge. The type of productions that students create in TV production naturally tap into language arts, science, performance arts, communications, math, technology, and conventions. Think about it... "Students write scripts, develop promotional plans, calculate lighting ratios, work with time code in editing, design and construct sets, troubleshoot equipment and a host of other real-world tasks common to the film and video industry" (Loveland, T., & Harrison, H., 2006, p. 12). For students considering a career in media production or broadcast journalism, these first-hand experiences in their high school TV production course give them a more realistic picture of what these jobs entail (Fermin, 2007). Studies also suggest that they enhance students' ability to organize, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information (Dale, 1988).

Teachers of TV Production benefit nearly as much as the students. They have the unique opportunity to teach a course students find relevant and engaging, and as a result, experience fewer discipline problems. Schools benefit from having a television show that communicates their announcements and policies, while promoting school organizations, events, and activities to the larger community. Finally, the community benefits as more and more "students graduate with real-world skills, content knowledge, and technological literacy," and take up a variety of jobs within the community (Loveland, T., & Harrison, H., 2006, p. 13). Community needs are also met through school public service announcements and the exposure school TV productions often give to community fundraisers.

Offering TV Production in high schools is a win-win situation for all stake holders!

[edit] Resources

Check out the list of resources below to assist you in planning for your television production course.

• Kyker, K. & Curchy, C. (2006). SchoolTV.com

Provides a variety of resources to assist in teaching TV production, including a glossary of production terms, software resources, and intructional handouts.

• John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. (n.d.). High School Broadcast Journalism Project: Radio Television Online.

Hosts a free LISTSERV for broadcast educators, where teachers can network, provide advice and support, and share experiences and information.

• Avid.

The website for a popular media production software company. This is the same software used by Ms. Sullivan's class at Granite City High School in Granite City, Illinois.

• YouTube-Renegade Morning Show 6-7-07

A short video sample of a high school morning show

[edit] Mediagraphy

Music

• teru_-_Hard_December_-_instrumental by teru from ccMixter

Photography

• HTV:Fall 2006 Group Shot by laffy 4k
• LMG High Def Video Package by Rob Lee
• Command Center by soundman 1024 from Flickr
• HTV Fall 2006 "Silly" Group Shot by laffy4k
• All other photography by Candice Valencia

[edit] References

Barnouw, E. (2007). Early experiments in school television production. Center for Media Literacy. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from http://medialit.org/reading_room/article339.html

Dale, N. (1988, March). Proposed television production program for senior high school students to develop critical thinking skills. (ERIC Document No. ED323555). Retrieved March 30, 2008, from ERIC database.

Fermin, A. (2007, March). Students learn TV skills on morning broadcast: Show is one of dozens of Brighton High clubs. DemocratandChronicle.com. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/SPECIALS0701/703250312/0/specials07

Harris, P. (2007, February). Solving the money problem in a television production class. Technology Teacher, 66(5), 22-28. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.

Loveland, T. & Harrison, H. (2006, November). Video production: A new technological curricula. (Cover story). Technology Teacher, 66(3), 7-12. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.

Middle schoolers produce network-style newscasts. (2000, October). T H E Journal. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.

Oak Ridge High Shool.(2005, March). Oak Ridge High School TV Production: Clips from the morning show. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from http://teachers.ocps.net/~kolbok/clips/ortvclip0305.htm.

TELEVISIONARIES. (2003, February). Teacher Magazine, Retrieved April 2, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.