CRESTVIEW — The behind-the-scenes hubbub of the television studio suddenly screeches to a halt when the stage manager shouts, “Stand by, please!”
The difference between this weekly scenario at Northwood Arts and Science Academy and a professional TV station is the production team entirely comprises students.
And they take their tasks seriously.
“Everybody, I need quiet here,” director Mark Beaurivage tells fellow members of the school media center’s broadcasting club.
Stage manager Ben Bailey then gives talent Nathan Price his countdown, followed by the cue to begin a second take of his recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
The “Morning Show” is a three- to four-minute mélange of the Pledge of Allegiance, school announcements, educational segments — Northwood’s profiles famous artists — and, occasionally, silliness.
Like those at schools throughout North Okaloosa County, Northwood’s show is broadcast on the school’s closed-circuit video network to individual classrooms.
SOLID TV FOUNDATION
“It definitely is preparing them if they’re interested in a career in television,” media assistant and broadcasting adviser Montavius Diamond said. “They get a good, solid foundation for middle school and high school television programs.”
Diamond, once a Northwood student himself, teaches the broadcasting kids using skills he learned on the Crestview High School “Morning Show” staff.
“That experience definitely came in handy,” he said. “These kids are learning a lot of the same things that we learned in high school.”
Kids in the club, which meets for about 50 minutes once a week, learn how to storyboard their segments, use the program’s new HD camera, video terminology, and non-linear video editing skills using iMovie.
The 16 fourth-graders take turns experiencing the different aspects of video production, appearing in front of and behind the camera, editing, stage managing and dressing the sets.
“Different kids bring different skills to the program,” Diamond said. “We have a good core group that is helping give the ‘Morning Show’ its direction.”
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: School broadcasting clubs prepare students for future TV careers (VIDEO)