Silverado Video Production students work hard throughout the year to provide the school with the daily announcements from SBN (Student Broadcast News) entertainment.

“People tend to think the production process is fast and easy, like an Instagram video or a TikTok,” said Kevin Fiddler, adviser of Video Productions. “It’s not. True production takes a great deal of pre-planning, writing, storyboarding and focusing on detail — especially when it comes to lighting and camera shot composition.”

The broadcast begins where all great production begins: preproduction and scripting.

Then the broadcast team compiles the script based on teacher and administration’s submissions, and one of their three news crews/teams head into the studio where they produce the raw recording of the announcements using their $700,000-plus studio.

Once the crew finishes the broadcast, they bring it back into the lab where the broadcast begins the post-production process of editing, creating CGs (computer graphics), mastering the audio, keying out the green background and adding our digital studio animation.

At that point, the broadcast students export the episode in 1080 HD before uploading it to our YouTube page for air.

Hayden Douglas (12) is the anchorman for the weather. He also works on lighting and the teleprompter for SB entertainment.  

“Pre-production is the hardest part,” Douglas said. “We have to write the scripts and come up with the best ideas, then put it all together.” 

For anyone who would like to join the class, the most important thing to have is interest and imagination so you can move forward.

“I like getting all the hands-on experience and all the friends and partners that you can have in this job,” Douglas said.

Video production is a three-year CTE (Career/Technical Education) course, which offers a certification test at the end.

The director’s job is making sure everything is going well and that everyone is doing what they are supposed to.

Directors must make sure “the anchor is reading everything correctly and that all the shots look good from every angle,” said Tre Sleeper (12).