Middle School Class Does Its Work on Screen

Jeremy Kelly, 14, wants to follow in George Lucas’ footsteps and make films like “Star Wars.”

But he’s prepared to start small.

The Travis Ranch School eighth-grader walked around the Travis TV production studio this week giving directions to his co-producers and readying microphones, video equipment and a sound mixer for the filming of a news program.

Kelly is one of 36 students in the school’s new video production class, which puts together weekly newscasts.

“If you want to be in this kind of stuff, it’s a good class,” Kelly said after the pre-filming scramble in the one-room studio. “And it’s a lot of fun.”

Students produce two different newscasts for the campus’ middle-school and elementary students. Both are broadcast over the school’s small cable network and show up on big-screen televisions in every classroom.

A few segments have even appeared on the two Yorba Linda cable-TV stations, which have given the class technical support.

“Everybody knows us as the media class because we’re always on TV,” said Travis Miller, 14, during the filming of a commercial.

The program began two years ago as an after-school project run by the Tech Team club. But the students put out only about two broadcasts a year, teacher Susan Assad said.

So she created a class this year in which students work on weekly broadcasts and learn about computers, creative writing and other media, including film and the Internet. Next year, she hopes to offer a class devoted entirely to Travis TV that could produce three broadcasts a week.

“It’s amazing how many skills they’re learning,” she said of the students. “There’s a time management element. If they’re late on their assignment, it doesn’t run because no one wants to see old news. They’re also realizing they can’t do the job by themselves. The communication between them is incredible.”

The Tech Team has continued as an after-school club, but its focus has changed to advanced video editing and video equipment repairs around the school, said Matt Christiansen, 14, who has been in the club since it started two years ago.

Most of the students said the class has opened up a career path for them and has given them an idea of whether they prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it.

“I don’t know about being a cameraman for the rest of my life,” said Alexander Gonzalez, 13. “That might be boring. But maybe a news reporter or game-show host--that would be fun.”