By Jill Harlow – Loveland, Colorado…When Campion Academy’s Digital Journalism and Communication class heard that Enrollment Director Jessica Rios was holding a contest for videos that would give potential students a glimpse into campus life, they were ready to step up to the challenge.
The class spent the first part of the semester focused on news reporting and other types of writing, so filming and editing was a fresh experience.
“I liked filming, although it’s honestly really complicated. For me, it was difficult to get the right angles or shots I envisioned, but it’s definitely a fun process,” Tiffany Dien, Campion senior said.
Students partook in the process with mixed emotions.
“Going into the project I was thinking I was not going to like it, and I thought I would do a terrible job,” commented Jayce Treat, Campion senior, who had never made a video before. “Once I started working on it though, I really enjoyed myself and ended up having a really good time editing. Watching all the clips come together and form a finished video was extremely satisfying.”
During the month of October, Jenny Sigler, former Campion teacher instructed the class in the basics of planning and filming. Darcy Force also lent her expertise to help students navigate editing software.
“Mostly, I love teaching video editing because it’s fun,” explained Sigler. “Also, it’s fulfilling to watch kids become more informed about the media that we consume all the time, but don’t necessarily create that often. Once they know what goes into making a video, they’ll never watch one again without thinking about it more critically.”
The students worked in two groups to tackle the project and were able to learn from each other as well. “I was very lucky to have Sami as one of my partners as she taught me a lot about editing and helped me with getting the best film shots,” reflected Bentlee Barry, Campion senior. “One of the biggest lessons I learned by far was time management. By the time we came up with our plan, we had two days to finish. It was very stressful; nonetheless, I’m happy with the way the video turned out!”
The two videos produced by the class received first and second place in Rios’ contest and each member received Amazon gift cards as prizes.
The students concluded that the project was a success and a good learning experience. “I enjoyed being able to make some of my creative ideas into reality,” said Barry.
Dien commented, “It was really cool to create a video to represent one student’s life and spiritual experience at Campion. It was very encouraging to listen to her story about being vulnerable. Hopefully others outside of campus will see and experience that part of Campion for themselves.”
—Jill Harlow, is Campion Academy’s communication director; photo supplied
To view Video 1 please click here
To view Video 2 please click here
