Going to Santiago High School offers students a chance to be a part of so many different programs that can help them flourish as a person. TV production is an amazing program at Santiago that works hard to create their very own TV show called Shark TV. Events that take place at Santiago are videotaped by their varied videographers and discussed by the anchors. These are the individuals who are mainly involved in the filmmaking process. Video control, special effects, camera and editing machine operation, composition, lighting, staging, and directing, as well as on-camera announcing and interviewing, are all topics covered in the television production course. The major cinematography (filming) for a movie or TV show normally occurs during the TV production phase.

While I visited this class, I decided to interview some of the most important members of the television production crew so that the student body might gain a better understanding of the people behind the camera. I also learned that Santiago’s program was worth over $700,000, even though that is too little of a budget for everything they need.

I posed the following questions to Mr. Gauss and my fellow senior Jimmy Matteden, who has been on the production team for three years, and Davis Knoll, who has been on the production team for four years. 

 Jimmy Matteden- 

 Do you believe the program should be worth 700k?

 “I think it is important to give students at our school the proper resources to create videos creatively.”

What is your Favorite Part of Video Production?

“My favorite part is kinda watching the after product and seeing how different students put together a cohesive project. And seeing it come together so beautifully because you know it’s like putting together parts of a puzzle. Everybody has their part and when it comes together it’s a beautiful puzzle.”

Why is it important that you’re a part of tv production?

“I started doing video production then I moved to TV production because I enjoyed the creative aspect and telling stories. It sparked my interest to pursue something like this in the future. Being in this class is important to me so I can further my interest and learn more so I can grow in this aspect in the future.

Davis Knoll-

 What is your favorite part of tv production and Why?

“My favorite part of tv production is when we finally see an entire episode come together. It’s cool to check it out after our two-week period. And you just kinda get a feel for all the work that was put into the episode. It went from idea to shooting, to editing, to finalizing all the way through, and then we have to inspect the episode and make sure it’s all good before we can release it and we have to make sure everything looks good and sounds good. But in general, it’s really good to watch the episode come out, and just then getting feedback from the school is really fun.”

What is your favorite episode you’ve done and why?

“My favorite segment that I’ve done so far is the one that I did during Thanksgiving time. I did a segment with the life skills class where I basically went in a few days prior and I asked them all to come up with their favorite thing they’re thankful for and bright shining faces were smiling back at us telling us what they were thankful for. And it was really nice to hear a really diverse set of answers of what they were thankful for. So that was super cool.”

What is TV production to you?

“It’s just a group of a bunch of different minds that come together that try and make some entertaining news and entertaining segments for the school. And we try to keep the kids captivated and we wanna grab their attention and we wanna give them new information that they probably haven’t heard before and you know we have some fun with it too. It’s all about expressing yourself through your segments while trying to almost fulfill a rubric almost and you just get creative with the way you dispel information.”

Mr. Guass-

 Why is tv production important?

“TV production is important here at Santiago because it really holds up a mirror and reflects all of the diversity and the incredible program that we have here at Santiago. It keeps people up to date on what’s happening here, and hopefully, it entertains people as well. And I think that it prepares you for college and being able to edit videos really allows you to crystalize some ideas and put them in place.”

What is your favorite segment you’ve done so far and why?

“My favorite segment that’s been done since I’ve been here at Santiago is a piece that has been done on diabetes awareness. And I thought that it was just really well done. And then they had some testimonials from three kids with diabetes. For one of the people, it wasn’t widely known, like a lot of her friends didn’t know that she had diabetes and she was willing to go on it shocked a lot of people. She had initially kept this thing so private so I thought it was really cool that they shared that about themselves. She was a diabetic athlete that really never made a big deal about it. I just thought it made a big difference on people and it’s someone they can identify as an accomplished athlete who also happens to be diabetic.” 

Why do you believe that the program should be worth 700k?

“I think the money for video and tv production is on the low end. I’m hoping that the program is worth 2- 2.4 million by the time I’m done purchasing gear for this class. The reason is to be up to date with industrial standard technology requires an investment like that. Unfortunately, our school district is unable to provide stuff like that so it’s up to the state to really provide funding for the equipment that will prepare our students for the careers of the future.”

So if you haven’t taken an art class and you are looking for a place where you can express yourself through videography or cinematography then I highly suggest Video/TV Production