Help needed: high school video news

Thanks to the efforts of a few committed seniors we have gotten our video bulletin off the ground (youtube.com/drakehighschool)

Once again, I come to you seeking advice. Student interest has increased and I have a group of students ready to continue our video news bulletin next year. This will be a club - not a class- next year. While we do have a video documentary program on campus the idea of a regular video broadcast doesn't mix well with their curriculum.

My questions for you:

-what rookie mistakes can we avoid?
-what gear has worked best? We have one HD DV camera now. Add some Flip cameras to keep it simple?
-we are a Windows-based school so...... what's the best video editing platform? I have experience with Windows Movie Maker and Premiere CS3/Elements - the latter two aren't the best.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Rod Milstead
teachertechinfo.com
rodmilstead.com

Tags: editing, news, video

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Johnson on April 6, 2010 at 10:43am

Congrats on getting it going sometimes that is the hardest step. I have two shows a daily 5 minute broadcast and every 3 week 25 minute news show. You can check ours out http://www.schooltube.com/user/jaeger33

Are you all producing your show in one take or are you filming each part separately and then editing together later. The reason I ask is because my advice will be slightly different depending on your method of production.

Equipment wise I think the Canon GL2's are very solid cameras that can work well inside and outside a studio (if you can afford them). I have lots of luck with Canon and Sony cameras and very little luck with anything else. I have only used Flip cameras once or twice and not had a ton of luck with them but we are a Mac lab so had some format issues.

Speaking of which one bit of advice that I would give is to quickly figure out your multiple media management plan. If things go well you will be getting all kinds of video/photos from all kinds of sources (kids wanting to show off their work hopefully) and one of the biggest challenges can be getting all the different video formats and pictures to all play nice when you try to put them together. Programs like compressor for Mac are what we use.

We do live productions for our news program using the Tricaster Studio and I love that system ($7000). It even allows us to do some live sports streams. (http://aurorabasketball.weebly.com/index.html). If you have a community that would be into that sort of thing you can generate some pretty good sponshorships for your club by offering advertising during these streams to help cover the costs of buying the cameras and the equipment.

For a straight up editor I would say that Adobe Premiere would be a nice purchase but depending on how elaborate your show is you can get away with just elements as well (I have limited experience with elements but lots with Premiere Pro).

Most importantly I think is to keep your content fresh. I have had the most luck keeping interest in the show (both my students and the rest of the student bodies) by having weekly segments. Whether it is a Wednesday Pop Quiz or a Friday "Minute to Win It" challenge. The fun/spicy extras keep your show from becoming a dull talking head version of the announcements.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Buckley on October 25, 2010 at 12:08pm

It sounds like we are trying to do something similar. Maybe we could offer each-other advice. Although I am not yet experienced, because we are just starting our channel. But if you have any advice let me know. I am working on putting up all my schools art work both online and off. We run on mac and uses final cut. Im not sure if you can use final cut on windows but it is a good program. My experience is that hd cameras are the best. If you have any ideas let me know! thanks:)

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Permalink Reply by Rod Milstead on January 21, 2011 at 1:39pm

So here's the latest- the program is on hold due to lack of student interest. They started strong but, when confronted by the amount of work involved retreated. How is your program going?