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     Video has killed the Radio Star"*, Click & Clack the Tappit brothers, and Garrison Keller excepted, of course.  Video is undoubtedly king as a means of presenting information and a basic means of self-communication. Just look at the phenomenal success of YouTube as an example.  This course teaches students not only the basics of Broadcasting(Video, Television, Audio, Radio, camera angles and using video cameras) but instructs students on how to examine the "how and why" particular camera techniques are used to manipulate an audience.  Students put all this together in creating their own videos, using storyboards layouts, preplanning and team collaboration.  Students also have the opportunity of creating special News & School reports to be later broadcast on KnightLine News, our school's live, daily student run news program.  But even if students do not go beyond this course, they will have the education to see how and why movies, television and videos manipulate their audiences.

      Students start off with the basics: learning how to use a video and TV camera tripod.  Then they go into what is a video camera, the parts of the camera, the functions of the controls and how to correctly use it on the tripod.  Next are Camera Angles; what they are, the most common ones used and the emotions and feelings these create in the viewer.  After this video section is Audio, that is, sound.  Without it, we're back in the 19-teens and twenties when Silent Films were the norm.  Students will learn the basic controls of a Sound Board, different microphones, mic booms, stands and poles, wire connectors and adapters as well as sound distortion.  Students will then learn the basics about how to create a one minute video and be taught the rudiments of storyboarding.  Finally, students will bring all their instruction together to write and create their own one-minute video.

* With apologies to The Buggles: "Video Killed the Radio Star"; 1979.  By the way, ironically, this was the first music video shown on MTV!