The 2A Girls Basketball Provincials will provide a test for more than just the athletes and coaches representing their high school and zone.
The event, which runs Thursday through Saturday (March 17-19) is also a chance for a half-dozen media students at host Picture Butte High School to put their newfound skills on display for hundreds of spectators. Five students in the advanced video technology course have been working diligently on a video for the opening ceremonies to welcome teams and their supporters to provincials.
Principal and course instructor Mark Lowe says those second-semester students aren’t the only ones anxious to see their work play out on the big screen in the gym. The first-semester students, who are just learning the basics of the craft, will be watching too.
“When they see this video go up on the screen in front of 400 people and see the kind of quality our students have been able to generate, I think it will inspire them to do similar things when they get going,” he says.
The Career and Technology Studies program has seen enrolment increase from 17 in its inaugural year last year, to 41 this year. Inspiration is critical if the program is to continue to grow and Lowe gives credit to that first class he taught for setting the bar so high.
He’s counting on the presence of Feature Productions, a professional enterprise which will be video streaming the provincials, to further motivate his students. Originally there was thought of the students handling the entire production themselves, but instead they were tasked with putting together the video and will job shadow for the rest of the tournament.
“We thought it would be an awesome opportunity for them to watch the professionals in action and see where they can get to if they continue in this field,” Lowe says, adding a photo editing student will also have the chance to tag along with a contract photographer during the tournament.
Student Daisy Teneycke says she learned about filming techniques and editing software her first semester and got some first-hand experience during the Coyote Flats Oral History Project (see http://goog.l/7T4a61 ). She’s really enjoying the greater sense of independence they’ve been given for the welcome to provincials video.
“It’s like ‘go figure out what you want to do and make it your own,’ so it’s a bit more fun and interesting,” she says, before searching for students and staff willing to offer a few words of welcome on film.
Lowe says many students just want to grab the video camera and start shooting when they begin the course. Planning things through takes a little more patience and he gives his second-semester students full credit for their foresight.
He talked with them about possible elements of the welcome video and then the students used their creativity and planned out the details themselves. They definitely rose to the occasion.
“They planned a long, one-shot scene and when they first approached me with it, I thought ‘oh boy, you are biting off a lot more than you might be able to chew,’ but they pulled it off and then some,” he says of the Grade 10 students.
Kyle Davies says that initial scene, which kicks off the opening ceremonies beginning 9 a.m. Thursday, was designed to show the kind of welcome visitors will get when they enter the school.
“We shut down the whole school for a period and we went all around the school with the students lined up in the hallways. We went upstairs and downstairs with one take, although it took three or four tries,” he says. “I was in a wheelchair, holding the camera and getting pushed around and everyone was giving high fives, like an energy thing.”
Classmate Teigen Vanderkooi’s favourite thing about the video technology course has been turning her own vision into reality. This project has provided a new challenge.
“I think the toughest thing is teamwork and finding out a way where everyone can do their own thing and everyone has a job to do but you’re all working in the same direction,” she says.
Although they had time to plan and put together some elements of the welcome video, the students will be faced with a quick turnaround between interviewing visiting players – some teams won’t arrive until late Wednesday evening – and having it ready for the opening ceremony.
“I’m excited to see the end, the whole video once it’s finished and edited,” says Isabelle Ramsden.
Shaelee Sawa’s initial interest in video and editing has only grown through the first two semesters. She’s excited about the prospect of watching how the professionals do it.
“I’m interested to learn more about editing and how to make it perfect and make it look like a professional did it. All their tricks and tips,” she says of Feature Productions.
Lowe’s interest in video was spawned by a desire to capture those special moments of his first child’s early years, and he’s basically taught himself through trial and error. He says the media courses seem so natural to many of today’s students, who grow up filming videos and taking photos with their smartphones.
“Some people are artistic but not with their hands in a traditional way. This lets them be creative with their mind and the computer and they get to express their creativity in a different way,” says Lowe.
Basketball Provincial Video Photos
