Spring break put a crunch on the production schedule of "Cougar News," a weekly news show put on by the students at Oakton High School's Video I and II elective classes. With a class that meets only twice a week, and one week off for spring break, the panic mode set in Thursday, April 24, the day before the program was scheduled to be aired after the morning announcements.
The class is divided into teams, each responsible for a different facet of the morning show, which resembles the student version of "60 Minutes." Taylor Ryan, one of the student executive producers, summed it up at the pre-class meeting.
"We've got a deadline, which is tomorrow," he said.
Video technological advancements make this show possible for the Oakton students. It's a form of art that's informative and entertaining for students on a weekly basis. Every week, they pack in announcements, schedules and features, called "soap operas," for the students to communicate with the whole school and learn real skills that could lead to further aspirations.
"This is our third year now," said Alan Fisher, who teaches the video classes. "I call it a news magazine." Although he helps with technique and validity, the students provide the content.
The April 28 broadcast schedule featured short clips on the extended school days, the drama team tryouts, choosing colleges, and advanced placement testing. Then the commercial bits they planned were on the prom, magazine drive, carnival, the SGA elections and the after-prom party. The students count on the show for information, according to Fisher.
"At 8:35, there's nobody in the hallway," he said. "Everybody's watching this."
WHEN FISHER started the class, it was 90-percent boys but it's shifted to about half and half. He looked over at a group of girls crowded around a computer. "That's one of the most exciting things," he said. "It's now very balanced."
Back at the pre-class meeting, the teams talked about what they had planned.
"We're doing awesome," a spokesperson for team one said. Their closing will be a "bloopers" bit.
Team 3 sounded off with their plans.
"We went around asking people about the 30-minute thing," a team member said, referring to the 30-minute school extension due to the snow days.
The sports team had it all figured out.
"We're going to start today and finish today."
The video class shares a room with Adam Hatchl's computer graphics class. Some of the graphics are used in "Cougar News" as well.
"It's one of the ways we kick off the year, do a few animations for the show," Hatchl said.
Oakton principal Charlie Ostlund likes what he sees on "Cougar News."
"The work that they do is as good as any around. The final product is surprisingly professional," he said.
THE FAIRFAX ACADEMY at Fairfax High School has a video program as well, run by television production teacher Phil Harris. His class' magazine program, "Focal Point," is featured on Cox Cable every Monday night. Like Oakton, it features public service announcements, sports and instructional shows.
"Most episodes have a cooking show. Usually the kids use their parents as talents. Lots of ethnic foods usually come up," Harris said.
"Focal Point" has included such non-school reports as the 9/11 attacks and the Bush-Gore debate during the last presidential election.
"[Student Brian Franco] had the first camera getting footage at the Pentagon," Harris said.
Digital Wave Productions is a production company where academy students are getting paid for their coverage.
"They're the employees, and I'm the CEO. Students earn a salary," Harris said.
Clients of Digital Wave include Arlington County Parks, Arena Stage, National Institutes of Health, Marriott and the British Embassy.
"We charge a lower rate, but that doesn't mean it's not just as good when it's done," Harris said.
AT HOFFMAN BOSTON Elementary School in Arlington, Allysen Levy uses video on the elementary level. The school's video production is called "Project Edison," and past productions included a documentary on butterflies and a film on ancient Egypt.
"Instead of doing a book report, we did a news show," Levy said.
The butterfly show was about 12 minutes long, combining science and video skills. It focused on a science project raising the butterflies from the larvae stage, to a trip to the butterfly house at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.
"The goal is to improve our kids’ communications," Levy said. "There are so many skills that are just bundled together."
The butterfly video was recently entered in a short film contest at Megahertz Studios, where Levy also took a course called "directing in the classroom." The class is also working on a public service announcement (PSA) with Kara VanGraafeiland, the Arlington County Fire Department public education specialist.
"They're trying to create a bicycle safety PSA," said VanGraafeiland. "It's not just a teacher telling you, 'This is how you do it.' If nothing else, it's going to go around with me when I go to other schools."
WEST POTOMAC High School alumni Roberto "Ho" DeMoraes got the film bug back in high school and turned it into a career. The Springfield resident is now the writer-director-editor of an independent film "Fall of the Morning Star." DeMoraes graduated in 1993 and remembers a term paper assignment for which he did a short film instead.
"My project was to write a report," DeMoraes said. "My topic was the Amazon. I decided to make a movie instead. It got a much better grade than something I would have written."
Television news reporter Peggy Fox, who appears on Channel 9 WUSA, is a 1982 alumna of West Springfield High School. Although video technology was in its infancy back then, she looked back to other high-school experiences that gave her the confidence to pursue a career in television.
"When you're on TV, you've got to have composure," said Fox, who was captain of the West Springfield drill team. "I enjoyed the spotlight."
Fox went on to Virginia Tech, where she took film classes.
Oakton’s Aka Alexandria found confidence in his on-camera appearances. Since appearing on "Cougar News," he has become a celebrity around the halls. He started in an ESL program because of his Russian background and quickly overcame the language barrier to concentrate on videos.
"Last year in Video I, I started acting, and people really liked it," he said. "It accelerated my popularity."
Alexandria has tackled a project by himself that could be bound for other venues besides Oakton High School. It was called "Teen Safety Driving," about drinking and driving, and Alexandria hopes to get it into the police or driver's educational program. A state police officer helped him film it.
"We acted out a DWI stop," he said."
In Arlington, Levy also noticed some of her students emerging because of the videos as well.
"It's amazing," Levy said. "Kids you would put in the shy category, when you put them in front of a camera, they take off from that."