TV looks easier when you’re not the one producing it

By Cathy Spaulding
Phoenix Staff Writer

October 13, 2008 12:55 am

— FORT GIBSON — As they trek out with their tripods and digital video cameras, Fort Gibson High School students are learning there’s more to broadcasting than what’s on TV.
For one thing, there’s all that editing.
“It took a lot longer and was more time-consuming than I thought it would,” senior Eric Palmgren said as he and three other members of his video team studied a shot-by-shot computer images of the story they’re doing about the FGHS swim team. “It’s kind of difficult, but you get used to it.”
This is the first year FGHS is offering a video production class and the eight students have plenty to learn, according to teacher Melissa Parisotto. A $2,000 grant from the ONEOK Foundation, which FGHS received last week, will help fund textbooks for the class.
“We’re just getting started,” she said.
“The students will learn video journalism in general, how to pull audience interest in a story, how to work together as a team.”
Parisotto said she got interested in the video production class at a workshop last summer.
“I talked to some of my computer students and they got on board,” she said. “It wasn’t even on the class schedule for this year.”
Students already created video stories last year, she said. “We did a video on global education, the prom and commencement.”
So far this year, the students have done videos about the See You At the Pole prayer gathering, FGHS football and the winning season for the FGHS fast-pitch softball team.
All the videos can be seen online at the school’s video on demand Web site, by clicking on “School television.”
FGHS senior Taylor Pride said she had toyed with the idea of being a television journalist even before taking the class.
“The class makes you appreciate the work that goes into it,” she said.
Parisotto said the class has learned such TV and video techniques as the rule of thirds, putting the interview subject in the right third or left third of a shot, instead of dead center, to make the picture more interesting.
Palmgren said he likes the editing process best because interviewing “takes people skills.”
Parisotto said it takes an average of three hours of work for every 30 seconds of video in the final clip.
Palmgren said he thinks his team did a good job on the fast-pitch softball video.
“There were a couple of silent spots in there we could have taken out or put sound in to keep it going,” he said.
As they shoot their videos, students learn more about what looks good on the air, Parisotto said.
“Part of the PASS Objectives for computer classes is learning to collaborate with peers,” she said, referring to the state curriculum for computer classes. “This class is an excellent way for students to work together using technology.”
Senior Michael Kolmer, who has done some on-video interviews, said the class will help him find work in sales.
“It helps me get more comfortable talking to people,” he said.
Reach Cathy Spaulding at 918-684-2928 or Click Here to Send Email

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