Student Intern
The Internet is proving to be an exciting new education tool for one class at the Caribou Regional Technology Center (CRTC), located at the Caribou High School.
Contributed photo/Brenda Jepson
An all-girls team from the Viking Video Productions class at the Caribou Regional Technology Center recently put their creative heads together to produce a “claymation” cartoon called “The Magical Pool.” Working on the Webcast were, clockwise from lower left, Janell Leavitt, Angela McDonald, Karen Morey and Shelagh Kavin.
Contributed photo/Brenda Jepson
Students in the Viking Video Productions class at the Caribou Regional Technology Center have developed several Webcasts that can be viewed online at www.vikingvideoprogram.com. Taking a break from production in Mrs. Campbell’s Viking Corner Kitchen are, from left, Josh Kelly, Trevor Lewis, Janell Leavitt, Donny White, Angela McDonald, Fred Asam and Karen Morey.
The video productions class at CRTC recently started a Web site on which they have posted webcasts. For those who haven’t discovered the wonderful world that is You Tube, webcasts are kinds of videos that can be uploaded and placed on Web sites for anyone to view. Webcasts are usually videos that are made and uploaded on a regular basis, such as weekly or monthly, and quite often they are used for educational purposes.
Karen Morey, a 2008 Caribou High School graduate, said, “I think it’s great our class is moving out of the stone age and into webcasts.”
The Viking Video Web site hosts videos of different projects the class worked on, as well as different events class members attended. Included on the site so far are videos on claymation – the art of making animated films using characters made out of clay and stop motion cinematography, a music video to “Dance Floor Anthem” by the group Good Charlotte, and an introductory video for the class. In addition to those class projects, the students also documented their trips to the ‘Shiretown Film Festival’ in Houlton, as well as a tour through the New England School of Communications in Bangor. As no Web site would be truly complete without pyrotechnics, the class filmed during one of Mr. Keaton’s Automotive Technology classes, during which he showed his students how much it takes to push an engine to the limits. Much entertainment followed.
Classes held at the CRTC are open to students from all area schools. Students involved in the video productions class are from Caribou, Limestone, Washburn and Presque Isle high schools. Brenda Jepson, who has been involved with video productions for about 24 years, has been teaching the class for nearly 13 years. Jepson graduated with a degree in journalism and worked with the BBC in England for a period of time, so she is able to bring her own experience to the class. She says she’s teaching them using the standards she learned from the London director.
“If they ever went to work for the BBC, the directors would be very happy with them,” she said.
The class focuses on teaching students about the art of cinematography, as well as directing and editing their pieces. Jepson says they begin the year learning about the camera and how it works, and then progress further along into filming, as well as writing the scripts for their pieces.
Students really enjoyed the class, and are very excited about the web casts and the new Web site, she said. She wishes that local schools had the ability to have what other institutions have, such as TVs in each classroom and their own studio to broadcast daily news programs. As such an endeavor is difficult and very expensive, she and the students hope that these webcasts are the next best thing.
Donny White, the webmaster, who will be entering his senior year at Washburn District High School said, “The webcasts had many good learning points. I learned about recording voiceovers and about how to edit a two-minute piece while maintaining an entertaining production.”
“Webcasts are fairly hard. There’s a lot that has to be done for preparation. The hard part was getting them onto the web – like finding a working site and converting the videos, but it made me feel awesome after it was all done,” said Trevor Lewis, a sophomore from Caribou High School.
The class was an inspiration to the students, as many of them will be going to college to study video productions or theatre. Perhaps the Caribou theatre will be seeing more World Premiers in the future thanks to Jepson and the CRTC.
Anyone interested in seeing what the class has done throughout the year may watch their webcasts on their website at http://www.vikingvideoprogram.com.
