By Henriikka Niemi
Staff Writer
Thirteen members of Coppell High School’s KCBY-TV travelled to Orlando, Fla. to attend a journalism convention, Student Television Network (STN), which attracts middle and high school age students from all around the country and includes competitions, workshops and speakers.
“At STN, there are 2,700 kids walking around with cameras everywhere and they’re on deadline thinking about shots and being creative,” KCBY adviser Irma Kennedy said. “My kids are able to interact with a wonderful group of students from around the country that are like them and are passionate about what we do. It’s a contagious feeling. When you see everyone else, you can’t help but want to join in and create something.”
Twenty contests are available for high school students to compete in, for which they are given a topic or objective and a deadline for completion. KCBY students competed in Sweet 16 film, Commercial, Music Video, Commentary and Tell the Story categories at the convention, which lasted from March 19-23. Awards were presented on Sunday and although KCBY did not place in any of them, for many, the experience was what made the convention worth it.
“I chose to go to the convention because everyone there loves film and journalism just like we do, so we can compare our videos to theirs and talk to each other about our experiences throughout our high school careers,” junior Michael Butzer said. “You get a lot of knowledge there from the sessions and other journalism students.”
For many KCBY students, the most notable contest was Sweet 16, for which they had 16 hours to complete a film on the topic of ‘Big Squeeze’ and had to find a way to incorporate an orange into the story.
“Sweet 16 is just a really stressful competition, so when it’s all over it’s so exciting to turn the finished product in on time and feel accomplished,” senior Delanie Majors said. “The best thing I learned was time management and making sure you always have a solid beginning, middle and end to your story.”
Along with contests, students have the opportunity to learn from those employed in the media industry through hour long sessions, which include everything from advanced editing techniques, satellite news gathering and being a versatile reporter to a session labelled ‘I’m in high school but I want to work in television, what do I do now?’ and one by filmmaker Andrew Jenks.
KCBY students also attended the Disney Youth Education Series Workshop at Walt Disney World’s Epcot on Saturday, a basic photography and film session for three hours.
“It helped the students see that even for a big corporation like Disney with a theme park, everything is related to storytelling,” Kennedy said. “It’s not just about taking a photo, but also thinking about the composition and what the story is of that image, whether its a character, ride or even the landscape.”
STN differs from other media conventions in that it provides KCBY with a chance to immediately apply skills to create a finished product and work against a deadline.
