SHSTV comes long way, still has long way to go

In a far-off corner of the school campus near the upper field and past the library, there lies a building labeled MM1, with papers taped to the wall motivating students in creativity, innovation and leadership, with spinning chairs and oddly-shaped tables that each hold six computers.

This room is home to the 20 staff members of SHS TV, a student-run Multimedia Journalism production, who meet there on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in preparation for the broadcasts that air every Friday during fifth period.

According to Tony Palma, the adviser and station manager of SHS TV, these broadcasts started off in 2008 as a show called “Falcon Punch,” a comedy that aired twice a year which Palma described as “terrible” and “great.” This show developed into SHS TV in 2009.

“SHS TV came out of a need and desire to expand journalism on campus,” Palma said. “We have had the paper and the yearbook for a long time, and a lot of schools were starting multimedia productions. I said, ‘Hey, we’re starting MAP; let’s use that as an opportunity to create SHS TV.’”

Palma believes that the broadcasts’ quality this year has increased significantly from previous years.

“It’s been an amazing change because every year I’m trying to push [the staff] to do more,” Palma said. “We went from one broadcast a semester to weekly broadcasts, and that’s just an amazing growth. It is challenging, but helping them grow is the important thing.”

According to Palma, making each broadcast requires a tremendous amount of work: getting visuals, interviewing people, writing up plans and stories, creating voiceovers and editing.

After the broadcasts’ producers, seniors Neil Prasad and Greg Yang and junior Madison Morocco, provide a peer review of a reporter’s story, it may be edited multiple times before either being uploaded to the website or put in a package that will eventually be inserted into the weekly broadcast.

Sophomore Shahnoor Jafri, who joined the SHS TV staff this year, said the most challenging part of this process for creating a 30- to 60-second story is the editing, using the program Final Cut. Reporters generally have only one to two weeks to finish this step, depending on the story’s air date.

“The editing takes a very long time,” Jafri said. “You have to make everything perfect, and you have a lot of pressure on you because usually I start editing two, three days before it’s due.”

According to Palma, a vital part of making a successful broadcast is the close relationships the staff members have with each other.

“Everyone comes with their different personalities and their different strengths and weaknesses,” Palma said, “and I think the idea is to harness [teamwork], because we work as a team. The  students work well together, because if they didn’t, we wouldn’t have a broadcast [every] Friday.”

Jafri said that in the future, she looks forward to possibly seeing a weather person in the broadcasts, changing the introduction and most importantly covering more intriguing stories.

“If there aren’t enough cool stories, then the broadcast tends to be a little bit boring,” Jafri said. “If we had more interesting stories and our reporters were more hardworking and passionate, then we would have an amazing broadcast.”

Palma said that although SHS TV has already come a long way from its humble beginnings, he too hopes to see many changes to the broadcasts, with the main focus on fixing technical glitches like skips or backlogs.

“My goal for the future for the program is to see the students branch out, get out of the community and try to make the broadcasts more entertaining, as well as informative,” Palma said. “Most importantly, [I want to] eliminate any of the technical flaws we’re having.”

Palma said he also wishes to step away from filming during class or seventh period in favor of live broadcasts.

“There are some disadvantages and advantages to having it live,” Palma said. “Live’s cool and fun and sexy, but it’s harder to do, and it may not make the report any better.”

Jafri said she most enjoys being on the SHS TV staff when she views the broadcasts each week.

“The most rewarding part of this is when I’m finished with the story and I get to watch myself every Friday, and I get to be proud of my work,” Jafri said. “Every time [the broadcast] comes out, I get really excited and I [think], ‘Wow, I can’t believe I did that. I’m so proud of myself.’”

Palma said he would love it if more students would join the program, even if they have never touched a video camera before.

“I’d love to encourage anybody who’s interested in signing up to be a part of it,” Palma said. “It is a lot of fun; it’s different and there are lots of opportunities to be successful. We welcome everyone.”