The Spring semester at Sacred Heart University was humming along just fine.
The TV Studio Production students were becoming more fluid with the operation of the equipment and gaining an understanding of the studio production work flow. The class had just finished the “live to tape” KELLOGG’S Cornflake commercial production exercise. The directing and crew rotations were adding to students’ know-how and confidence. The class had just been organized into two production teams and were starting to plan their first group studio projects. Show Rundowns were being created, scripts written, set design and lighting plots being developed, graphics were being designed, music auditioned and crew assignments were being negotiated. And we were just starting to direct and crew the WORLD TALK production exercise. The production team ethic was evolving with every class. All was Good!
My other class was also going quite well. The Broadcast News Production students had already become like one big family. Collaborating, sharing ideas and helpful feedback with one another came natural to them. What a pleasure to see!
This class had already completed their V/O and News Package Assignments. The quality of the work was very good and students were anxious for more. We were just starting to view and explore news feature pieces-what they are, what their goals are, how they differ in content, writing and production style from news packages. The students were researching ideas….
And then COVID-19 hit in early March and virtually instantaneously we transitioned to remote/online learning! Whew! My phone blew up with calls, emails and texts from students! “How are we going to do this?”
A well-attended on-campus crash course for faculty in both Webex and ZOOM followed. A couple of class group chats and many emails later, both of my classes successfully convened as scheduled on Webex within three days after the transition to online teaching was announced. Over the next few days, the campus was essentially evacuated as students were forced to travel home.
Without being able to work in the campus TV studio, the TV Studio Production class needed to pivot dramatically to finish the semester as a field production class. The students were remarkably flexible and responded enthusiastically to the challenge. They worked in pairs via chats, Google Docs, email etc. to produce their own local Corona virus stories as the impact of the pandemic unfolded. iPhones and student owned video SLR cameras replaced the university equipment to shoot stories. Adobe Premiere video tutorials and off-site university licenses supported post production learning. The weekly classes on Webex helped bring it all together. The resulting student stories were impressive!
My Broadcast News Production class was an ideal match for on-line learning because of the inherent independent nature of the course work. The students are regularly writing, shooting and editing to complete the course requirements. They whole-heartedly continued to do so, albeit observing social distancing and stay at home safety protocols. Our weekly class meetings on Webex- including the “sharing” of scripts, rough-cut edits, and live feedback- continued without a hiccup.
However, there were challenges. Some students needed to scrap and then scramble to find feature stories they could execute while observing safety measures. Throughout the semester, the students and I explored the concept and process of making a viewing audience “feel” a feature story rather than just “telling” them the story. The Corona virus was the perfect subject matter to try this type of storytelling. I encouraged several students to try producing music montage stories using existing video from broadcast, cable and internet news platforms- requiring them to credit their sources at the end of their pieces. Some students accepted the challenge and stepped out of their safety zones-trading away more conventional athlete profile stories for this more “dig down deep” story telling approach. The quality of the work was outstanding- touching and inspirational! Even Sacred Heart University President Dr. John Petillo saluted the work and congratulated the students!
Both classes turned out excellent- despite the challenges the virus posed. We even managed to take full advantage of ZOOM by having a guest speaker and interview workshop from afar.
In the end, it was the students’ flexibility, positive attitude and trust that made both classes so successful. One big drawback- since we finished the semester online, we had to forgo the tradition of my homemade chocolate chip cookies and milk during the last class of the semester!
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