EHS Video Club Works Hard To Entertain
By Melanie Reese
While the students and staff in Eudora High School are aware of where the majority of the school produced videos come from, it’s likely they aren’t aware of how involved the process is. From sports promos to Christmas videos, the EHS Video Productions class is constantly creating unique videos for the entertainment of the students. The 3 minute clips showcase the talent of the students in the productions class, but may not be credited for just how much hard work is put into creating these videos.
“People don’t realize that a minute and a half video can be a two week long project; forty-five minutes a day,” senior Grant Stewart said. “And most of the time we spend a couple of hours after school. There’s so much preparation to take into a video for just a short film, that making an actual movie just blows my mind, and I think people should know.”
Five years ago, Video Productions teacher, Nate Robinson was approached by 3 students who had the idea of creating a video club. Robinson, who had himself thought in the past of trying for this club, saw the opportunity given in front of him and took this up as an after-school activity. With a grant given by the school and one camera later, the video club had composed a football highlight film. The film had generated a lot of money into the club, allowing Robinson to buy more equipment.
“The more we figured out that if we take this one camera, and have it make money for us, give people a product they already want, then we could buy more stuff. Which means we would be able to make more things faster because we would have more cameras. And so about 80% of what’s in my camera cabinet is all funded by this class,” said Robinson.
The following year after the club was created, a Video 1 class was established. The class of about 17 people attended JCCC Technology Competition taking first place with iMovie 08 and a camera without a microphone versus schools with DSLRs, shoulder mounts and editing on Final Cut and Premiere Pro. While under the same circumstances technology wise, the first Video 2 class which was created on the second year of being a school course, was awarded second place at a 12-hour film fest.
Following up on the achievements of that festival Robinson stated, “People would ask us, ‘What are you editing on?’ ‘iMovie 08’, and they were literally laughing at us. Like some teachers that I even talked to were like, ‘Are you serious? How are you teaching video on that?’ But there’s something to say about what part of my focus is about video class is the KISS method. Keep it simple stupid. At this level; the high school level, a lot of people want to make special effects: lightsabers, laser guns. But that’s just so hard to do at this level, so I like to focus on trying to create a simple story and simple editing to make a good video.”
From the beginning of the class, the achievements are admirable from effort and talent standpoint, but the awards and amount of income aren’t the only triumphs about this class. The students in these video classes vary from sophomores to seniors, shy kids to sociable ones, the mix is clear as a bell. To sufficiently create a video, you need a team with skills of editing, sound, recording, acting and script writing. Depending on the video being created or the assignment that’s assigned, the group size can vary, all the while pushing you towards friendships that weren’t present before.
Junior Sierra Hartwell gives her thoughts on her Video 2 class’ structure, “I think our class is really unique. We’re able to pull a lot of different people from what you can say stereotypical social groups. We have people who are really outgoing and are really into the sports and we have a lot of athletes in the class and we also have those kids who are more artistic and are more to themselves, I guess you can say. And it’s cool that we can all come together and make something, and we can all just work together really well and mesh. We can build those relationships, like I never thought I never would have thought I would be friends with some of the people in this class but this class has brought me together with some people and it’s just really cool how that can happen.”
With the friendships built on the fun and joy the class brings, the video class is known around the student body as the lively class to have with the amusing teacher. Random screams aimed to get reactions when it’s too quiet, the movie Mean Girls references and loud jokes are admired by the students themselves. The ideas of storylines come after laughter and scripting comes with smiles. The 2 week long project began enjoyable, yet with seriousness. The simple storyline met with ideas for shots and sounds needed to make the video worthy enough for the known YouTube channel.
“In Video 1 and my first year in Video 2, I didn’t think it was that difficult because I thought you just went out, shot it and just had somewhat of an idea. But now the more years that I’m in video I have realized that you have to make a story and you have to cast it, script it, and get all your equipment set up. And depending on how long your video is, it could be up to three days of just working on the basics to a month before you even get to start shooting the video,” said senior Ellie Beers.
For five years there has been hard work and effort that has come from the creative minds of many unique students. Ideas from so many aspects: the kind of sound that will get the reaction i want, the kind of shots that will get the effect I’m looking for, the kind of lines that will be serious enough to get the message across, all these ideas expressed in 3 minute videos many students and staff enjoy watching.
The accomplishments the class has made is accumulating, and makes us wonder what other achievements Robinson hopes to gain.
“Over the last five years, the theme that has been going each year is, what are we going to do this year? We never know. We never know what we’re doing this year, and I’m of the mindset let’s get uncomfortable. Let’s do something we’ve never done before and let’s go from there. This year we got a drone so now we can actually fly a camera around and get shots from 600 feet in the air. We did a commercial- it’s on TV, and we’re still doing contests. So when you ask, ‘Where do I see us in the future?’ I don’t know because I take every year as like- I’m open. What’s coming through the door? Because I don’t know who’s going to pick up the phone and call me and say, ‘Hey can you make this video for me?’ So I just kind of have a focus of be open to new experiences because I’m in there right with them sharing those experiences right with them. It’s so cool!”
Although the videos they create may only be 3 minutes in length, the time it takes to finish a video can take weeks. The effort involved shows it’s not as quick and easy as it may seem to students who don’t take Video Productions class. You can watch these videos on EHS Video Club on Youtube. Or follow @EudoraVideoClub on Twitter to see the newest videos.
