Live hour puts TV students on the line By JACK FICHTER ERMA- They did it again. Television and media students at Lower Cape May Regional High School, with instructor Sam Best at the helm, sent another live telecast to Comcast’s Channel 9, Dec. 22 to viewers throughout Lower Township and Cape Island. The regional school district aired their first live television cablecast of “Lower Cape May Tonight,” Nov. 17. The 30-minute program was the first live television program from a high school in Cape May County on Comcast. The Dec. 9 edition of “Lower Cape May Tonight” was expanded to 60 minutes which brought the crew more guests, more pre-recorded segments from the field and live music in the studio from both the school’s jazz band and choir. The students had prepared a “green room” in their classroom for guests to await their call to the studio replete with pizza, lasagna and cookies. The segments and their projected running time where marked on a large whiteboard with the entire production totaling 59 minutes. To the viewer at home, the telecast went off with few glitches. The show ran a little short time wise causing the jazz band to play “Jingle Bells” twice in a row at the end of the telecast. “You’re doing great,” said Best, halfway through the program to the control room crew which included a technical director switching camera shots, a Teleprompter and audio operator, a producer, director and video operator. “Lower Cape May Today” is a nighttime version of a program seen by students inside the school weekday mornings. The concept for the prime time broadcast was to combine school and community news. Guests on the program included Laurie Johnson, director of Family Promise and Leslie Flick, coordinator of St. Baranabas Cares Food Panty. Video segments from the community included a segment on Congress Hall’s Winter Wonderland, the school’s Key Club food drive, a school hallway decorating contest and a profile of a student with cerebral palsy. Producer Mike Lang and Director Kemlyn Pearson said they hoped for a career in television production and planned on continuing in the field in college. Lang, a senior, has been in the high school’s television and media class for four years beginning with two years in the TV production class at the Richard M. Teitelman Middle School. He spent most of the hour going in and out of the control room door to the studio, giving directives to the technical crew and on air talent. Pearson said she wants a career in television in either New York City or Philadelphia. She said would like to work in news. “Anything that’s live is always the best,” she said. “The last show we did was a half hour, this show was an hour, so it was definitely a little bit different,” said Pearson. “We definitely pulled everything together.” Producing a live telecast kept the students anticipating the next segment while watching the ever-present control room clock. “It gives me this nice little thrill, it makes me feel great,” said Lang. “You never know what could happen, so you can improvise.” Kaitlyn Poling, a junior, who acted as a news anchor along with several other students, said she was comfortable both in front of and behind the camera. She was asked to fill time to allow the choir to exit the studio and the jazz band to reenter and take their seats, not an easy task to accomplish in a minute or two. “I’m pretty used to it, that just kind of how it works,” said Poling. “There’s a set thing but then you kind of have to roll with the punches and improvise because sometimes it doesn’t go right and in the real world, that’s what’s going to happen.” “You have to keep your calm and be in your own little world sometimes,” she continued. While appearing cool and collected on camera, Poling said inside she was a “nervous wreck.” She said on camera work gets easier with experience. Poling said she has been in the television and media class since her freshman year.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 19:58:11 +0000
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