Today’s middle schoolers have grown up immersed in digital technology and surrounded by media on big and little screens, from TVs to laptops to cellphones. So, it’s only natural for this generation to want to learn to create video content, not just consume it.
That’s the goal of an innovative new two-year video production program at All Saints Catholic School in Manassas. The program starts in seventh grade by introducing students to the fundamentals of video production — and then kicks it up a notch the following year. Starting this fall, eighth graders will use their video skills as members of a student-led Morning Newscast team that will produce a news show on deadline each morning. It will be livestreamed to every classroom from a new video production studio in the parish activity center.
The new studio, scheduled to open mid-June, features a long green wall, to be used as a built-in “green screen,” which allows the addition of digital background effects. The space is wide enough for several students to appear on camera together. The studio will be outfitted with the latest technology, including energy-efficient LED lights that are bright, but stay cool so they won’t heat up the workspace.
In today’s world, technology and communications are considered essential skills — so the program isn’t an elective.
“Every seventh grader is automatically enrolled,” said Principal Dave Conroy. “It exposes them to different platforms of technology and encourages higher-level thinking and opportunities for collaboration,” he said.
That collaboration was on display one recent morning as several teams of students dispersed around the courtyard to shoot commercials. After recording a test video using a small tablet on a tripod, one group gathered around the screen to review results and make suggestions for revisions. All the students seemed comfortable with the technology and highly engaged.
While the program is considered a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) initiative that is integrated into the seventh-grade technology curriculum taught by Tina Pettyjohn, the scope is much broader, said Janis DeVore, All Saints’ director of marketing and development, who also assists with video production classes. She said lessons draw on language arts, writing, and faith components as students focus on storytelling and content creation.
DeVore said the program’s “hands-on, project-based learning” covers many aspects of video development, from pre-production research and planning to scriptwriting, on-air delivery, camera operation, lighting techniques, audio recording, computer graphics and post-production editing. Equipment provided includes professional-grade video cameras and sound equipment, iPads, Chromebooks, laptop computers and video editing software.
In addition to the commercial they shot in the courtyard, seventh graders have worked on other video projects and offering assistance with the school’s annual fundraising video. They also worked with the National Junior Honor Society to promote the All Saints’ Bread of Life Food Drive.
The idea to create the video studio grew out of efforts by All Saints’ pastor, Father Lee R. Roos, to raise funds in 2020 to offer high-quality livestreamed Masses during the pandemic, and then to develop campus-wide video production capabilities. “From that, it just blossomed into other applications,” which were rolled out in multiple phases, DeVore said.
Donations from parishioners and additional funding from the school’s annual fund helped support the video initiative, which was guided by parishioners who work in the video and audio industries.
While the students are learning hands-on skills for a digital age, they’re also learning something even more important, DeVore said. “They gain an understanding of the impact of media and its function to inform, instruct and entertain,” as well as “the opportunity it provides to share the good news of our faith using digital technology.”
