Palisades High School’s Pali Productions class now offers videos, highlight reels and even live streaming. How students are able to accomplish this without a permanent classroom space or studio, a paid instructor and only the bare minimum of equipment is a tale of persistence and “making do.”
The class started two years ago because of demand. Students convinced Sean Passan, an AP European and freshman history teacher, to give up his conference period to work with them. “I did production at college [University of Connecticut] as a hobby,” Passan said.
The contrast of Pali Productions and its dearth of resources nestled in a community that is home to top entertainment professionals, including Oscar and Emmy winners, is jarring. Students would welcome those individuals to visit their “studio,” a classroom where desks are pushed aside to accommodate a hastily constructed green screen.
“We started with two hand-held video cameras two years ago,” said Arik Albek, a senior and program manager for Pali Productions, who was accepted to Chapman University’s film school.
“I purchased them off eBay,” Passan said.
Even with limited equipment, the 15-member class has accomplished some significant milestones, such as taping several AP world history classes, and algebra and math analysis standards, and posting them online.
Those online videos allow students who are absent from classes or need academic reinforcement to access them for free. Production students need funding to be able to tape additional classes.
“It’s easy for us to post videos, because standards don’t change,” said Gabe Von Ruden, a sophomore who will be program manager next year.
Additionally, the Pali site has a link for Spanish-speaking parents that details PaliHi upcoming events in Spanish, hosted by seniors Brenda Jaime and Naarai Hernandez.
After gaining a TriCaster, described as a studio/camera in a box, and using a specially laid cable, Pali Productions used live streaming last year for Paul Revere and PaliHi’s graduations, as well as for several basketball games.
The students are lobbying to have a land video line laid from the school to the stadium in order to provide live streaming for football, lacrosse and other stadium events.
Passan said members of his class would welcome jobs from the community, such as taping weddings and bar mitzvahs or compiling video sports reels. The cost? A donation to the program, which is struggling to fund equipment.
The day before the Palisadian-Post visited the classroom, a Dell power adapter broke and Passan paid the $20 out of his pocket to replace it. “When things break down, we don’t have a budget to replace or repair them,” he said.
At a February parent booster club meeting, the class received $5,586 to supplement equipment and improve editing bays.
Although students have a wish list that includes a room designated specifically for production and $25,500 worth of equipment, which would include industry standards such as ATEM 1M/E broadcast panel ($4,745), a wireless microphone system ($1,600), an Apple iMac ($3,350), cameras ($1,099) and cables (ranging from $4 to $124), they would be grateful for just an additional $7,000, which they know would make a big difference.
“We could take care of replacement parts and have a little slush fund,” Albek said. “It would help get us off the ground.”
Students hope they will eventually be able to sell videos of student games and graduation, earning enough money to have their class become self-sufficient. They have gone on field trips to Palos Verdes High School and Sony and E studios, and would welcome additional field trip opportunities, if anyone in the community could make it happen.
After a field trip to Milken High School, which has its own television channel, students realized that instead of Pali’s verbal PA announcements, they could broadcast to a classroom television or even to cell phones. Updating that technology might possibly elicit a hallelujah from neighbors, who complain about the sound level of the morning announcements.
View a video of the class at the Palisadian-Post Facebook page. The site can also be accessed via facebook.com/paliproduction.
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