Countywide : TV Production Made Easy

Jean-Maurice Ripert, the consul general of France, spent an afternoon this week being interviewed on topics including Haiti, Bosnia and Russia for a new cable television public access program produced by volunteers.

The show, “World Affairs Update” with Scott Allen Gates, focuses on global issues as viewed by guests who range from college professors to experts on foreign policy. It is shot in the Comcast studio at Buena Park High School and its makers are people who completed a monthlong workshop on how to film, edit and produce a television program.

Few people are aware of the workshops, which are free and open to any resident of Fullerton, Placentia or Buena Park, said Susan Grab, community access coordinator of the Comcast Public Access for North Orange County program.

Once people complete the monthlong workshops, they can produce their own shows for no more than the cost of the videotapes, Grab said.

She said most programs last about two years and range in format from musicals to talk shows touching on everything from medical technology to building aircraft to environmental issues.

Gates, 33, said that for himself and his partner, producer Nick Mamoenas, 41, their new show is a way to arouse a “thirst for knowledge in regards to the world around our audience.”

The audience can be 30,000 to 40,000.

The one-hour program will be on twice a week sometime between 5 and 9 p.m. on weekdays. Viewers can tune in to the show on Channel 55 in Buena Park or Channel 65 in Fullerton or Placentia.

She said anyone interested in enrolling in the workshops, which take place Wednesdays from 3 to 6 p.m., should call her at (714) 680-8842.