Advertisement Students in the video communication class write, appear on camera, film, edit, produce and broadcast their creations over the schoolwide TV station.
 |
Tim Metzler, left, acts the part of a reporter in a news story while Andrew Santoso acts the part of a frightened witness. Check out some Topper TV on the school Web site.
Photo by Jo Anne Killeen |
Four of those students — seniors Tim Metzler, Andrew Santoso, Rafaela Stancic and Christen Geyer — made up one of about 15 teams. Their creative program segments had school staff as well as students buzzing with anticipation of each installment.
The semester assignment for the teams was to make news relevant to the students by using high school life to make stories. They did that and more.
“Our first goal was informational,” Metzler said. “But then we started making entertainment out of the news.”
“Our first story was about the Winter Carnival,” Stancic said. They provided the basic information about the traditional Valentine’s Day dance and then added their own twist to make it entertaining. “We used a real story to make people laugh.”
Tame news soon turned into outrageous stories. The foursome produced, for example, a three-part series called “Hobo Beach.”
“We created a secret beach in La Crosse,” Metzler said.
“It was a magical beach,” Stancic added. “One of the stories was about tanning dangers. So we went tanning on this secret beach.”
Of course, they embellished the dangers a bit to create an aura of mystery for the audience with imaginary hoboes lurking in the bushes.
“We had everyone in the school hanging on our every word,” Metzler said. “We captivated everyone from the custodial staff, the principal and the students.”
“I was constantly stopped in the hallways and asked where is Hobo Beach?” Geyer said.
The climax of the story was an epic trek to the beach where the team would finally reveal its location. “It was the ‘Journey of Gilgamesh,’” Santoso said. They filmed a “trek” to the beach fraught with dangers and intrigue.
The ending was made even more exciting when they actually ran into two drifters on bicycles at the secret beach.
Team members complemented one another with their skills. Since Geyer was good at story boarding and the others didn’t care for it that much, she had that role. Metzler, because of his voice and articulation, was the narrator.
Santoso, who claims he had nothing to do with the creation of the Hobo Beach series, was the team techie who did all the editing.
Stancic, who said she was technically challenged, said she would do whatever else was needed.
Stancic was very grateful for the class. “I’m glad the school offers the class because it’s uncommon to be part of something like this.”
Metzler and Santoso also helped the La Crosse County Library System create a film called “Take Me to Your Reader” for the 2009 summer reading program. Metzler was transformed into an alien leader looking for intelligent life while Santoso was the technical guru doing all the production.
Santoso said the library video experience really pushed his boundaries and he learned much more than he would have from doing class projects.
“In class I learned the basics,” he said. “But projects outside the class really opened my eyes.”
He also created a public service announcement on electrical energy waste. “It was about ghost electricity, a vampire sucking energy from appliances even when they were turned off.”
None of the four planned to seriously pursue video production in college. Santoso said he will try it on a part-time basis, unless he finds out he can make real money out of it.
“It’s too hard to get into film and acting,” Santoso said. “I could see myself enjoying it but it is hard to get your foot in the door.”
Geyer plans to study genetics and Spanish at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Stancic will study political science and pre-law at UW-La Crosse. Metzler and Santoso might be roommates at Viterbo University. Metzler plans to study biochemistry and Santoso plans to study biology and pre-engineering.
