Multimedia students get hands on experience with all aspects of video production.

In this technology-savvy society, the school has been doing its part to stay current. Video announcements, ran by the multimedia productions students, have been airing since mid-March of last year.
The announcements are filmed second hour and aired third hour, running for about five minutes. Students have varied opinions about the announcements.
“The quality is horrible,” said junior Ryan LaDuke, “You can’t even see their faces. Wansitler’s GBTV is better.”
The announcements are filmed clearly, but according to anchors, the problem is what they are played on, which is Windows Media Player.
Because of time constraints, the multimedia team does not have time to make the announcements look as professional as they’d like.
“You have to be able to work fast because we only have one class period to get everything done,” said GBH-TV anchor Christina Halbeck.
The daily announcements are e-mailed to the class, giving them even less time to start filming and editing.
“In a dream world we would have a block class,” said multimedia teacher, Andrea Zech.
While some students complain about the announcements, others find them enjoyable and worthwhile.
“I like them a lot better than the announcements over the PA because students actually listen to them,” said freshmen Danyelle Shultis.
Filming announcements isn’t as easy as reading words off a teleprompter. “You have to make sure the anchors are there, get the teleprompter ready with all the announcements, do sound checks, make sure the camera angle is good, and get all the transitions and subtitles ready,” said Halbeck.
Unlike the PA announcements that were announced consecutively at the same time everyday, teachers are now in charge of showing them to their class, making the announcements more susceptible to being forgotten. Teachers are supposed to show them third hour. In a survey of staff, 62.5 percent say they show them atleasat 80 percent of the time, 12.5 percent say they show them less than 80 percent of the time, and 25 percent did not respond.
“My teacher always forgets to play them so I never know what is going on,” said senior Roseanna Rayyan, “I’m always missing NHS meetings.”
Whether video announcements are a hit with the students body or not, they won’t be going away anytime soon.