Lights, camera, action

A video production class allows students the opportunity they need to get ahead of the game in a growing field.

Churchill County High School’s video production class helps students expand their creativity and allows them to learn what goes into producing a television show. The students are also responsible for the production of the entire daily announcements.

Jacob Moulton said he started taking the class his sophomore year.

“I’ve always liked computers,” Moulton said. “But this class is more than computers. It allows you to get good at multiple things that deal with production.”

Moulton said he plans on going to school to become an actuary, a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. He said the skills he develops in the class are used more for a hobby that he enjoys.

Chip Rutledge, who teaches the class, said it is the first year CCHS has done television announcements.

“We have a state of the art ‘green screen’ that we’re able to use to produce our daily broadcast announcements,” Rutledge said. “Before we had a green screen that attached to the lights, now we have a proper room for it. The students perform the majority of the tassk when producing the announcement; the only thing they don’t do is upload the file to send it out.”

Rutledge said the students are responsible for: writing the scripts, putting the scripts on the teleprompter, editing, producing, directing and making sure the lighting is correct for the announcements. He said the students take turns with the responsibilities so they each are able to develop skills in the vast areas of production to find out what they like the most.

“I will put together an assignment for the students and then turn it over to them to run with it,” Rutledge said. “There are several talented students in the class and their skills continue to improve.”

Rutledge said in the beginning his students learned the basics and from there the students expanded their knowledge.

Senior Garrett Kalt said he enjoys taking the class and learning new things.

“I’m interested in broadcasting and thinking about pursuing it as a career,” Kalt said. “This class helps me to explore my interest in broadcasting. I’m able to develop and improve my skills, it gives me an upper hand and experience I need… and it looks good on my resume.”

Kalt said he enjoys being an announcer for the daily announcements. He said it is much harder than he first thought.

“When we read the announcements off of the teleprompter we don’t get the scripts before hand so we have to read it on the spot,” Kalt said. “We’re able to do as many takes as we need during the class as long as we don’t run out of time.”

Dylan Jones said he decided to take the class to help him with his public speaking.

“I was never a big fan of speaking publicly so I thought it might help if I took this class,” Jones said. “It helped me to get over that fear. The first time I announced was nerve racking but once I did it a couple of times I felt more comfortable with it.”

Jones said the class has shown him what it takes to be in production. He said the class allows access to the behind the scenes that you don’t typically see or really know about. He said it is a fun class that he really enjoys.

Jones said he is interested in a career in computer science.

Rutledge said the program has been a great success so far and him and the students are continuing to come up with ideas to expand the class.