Newtown High School Blog

FOX61 Student News has announced three additional videos that have met the standard necessary for broadcast by the television network.  The following videos were all produced by Video Production 2 students.

Donate To Skate: Kurt Liniger, Producer (Donate2Skate)

Rock Climbing Wall: Kurt Liniger, Producer (RockClimb)

Mock Crash: Nick Tramatozzi, Producer (MockCrash)

Congratulations to the students and their teacher Mrs. Mary Ann Snieckus!

Video Production Teacher Mary Ann Snieckus was recently notified that a Newtown High School entry into the FOX-61 Student News Contest has been selected as First Place Winner in the High School division. The one-minute segment titled, ‘Gates Of Fire‘, was produced by Andrew Mangold, Henry Sims, and Matt Hill, video II students who graduated in June 2009. The winning team will share the $2,500.00 prize.

According to the official release:

“Fox 61 Student News is one-of-a-kind, nationally recognized, community affairs, free of charge program focused on teaching critical thinking skills to students. Through teacher and student workshops, students learn to produce their own news stories. Fox 61 WTIC-TV and CW 20 WTXX-TV are the only television stations in the country that broadcast student-produced news stories 37 times per week. The stories selected for broadcast are considered for the Award Ceremony.”

Congratulations to all three students and their teacher, Mrs. Snieckus.

Video II students, Jack Champagne and Timothy Pierce, produced this short clip – C3G1_Ceramics featuring Art students engaged in ceramic sculpture. Sarah Hill and Maddi Middlebroo are interviewed.

Ms. Mary Ann Snieckus teaches this course. Video 1 is accepting students in all grades for the Fall 2010 semester.

Video II students Evan Swain, Scott Buchanan, and Matt Bolinsky created a short segment [China_Delegation_Rally] about the welcoming rally for delegates from our sister school in Liaocheng, China. Principal Dumais is interviewed.

This clip has been submitted to Fox 61 Student News in hopes of being selected for broadcast. Ms. Mary Ann Snieckus teaches this course. Interested students in grades 9-12 must enroll in Video I as a prerequisite.

Good Luck Evan, Scott and Matt!

Freshmen Neil Davis, Sean Watkins, and Abby Hungaski are editing an assignment for Mr. Steve George’s Video 1 course. The students are challenged with telling a story without spoken words. They must use at least eight shots of approximately15 seconds in length, and conclude the story within 2-3 minutes.

The assignment is impossible to complete without collaborative planning and careful consideration of the subtleties of visual communication.

Video Production III students Matt Rospenda, Mahbuhbuhl Hassan, Ryan Bienkowski, Shawn Chowdhury, and Ryan Ames were commissioned to produce a promotional video (Outtakes Video) for Chartwell’s Outtakes food service at the high school. Outtakes is an innovative approach to high school commisary installations, and the facility at Newtown High School is one of the first in the country.

Chartwell’s will be presenting the video at an upcoming New England region conference for the food service industry.

Congratulations to the camermen and editors, and to their teacher, Mary Ann Snieckus.

Video Production teacher, Mary Ann Snieckus, supervises students in the Control Room as they manage the production of a recent video. Mixing boards allow students to blend several individual camera and microphone feeds into a seamless final product. Students perform a variety of simultaneous technical tasks while following a script and adhering to commands from the director. High level multi-tasking for certain.

Video Production teacher, Mary Ann Snieckus is pictured meeting with one of several groups in her Video Production 3 class. The purpose of the pre-production meeting is to formalize plans for a video that will be submitted to an upcoming competition. Read the rest of this entry »

Students in Mary Ann Snieckus’ Video Production class record, mix, and edit video segments covering a variety of on-campus events. Many of the pieces are selected for broadcast on Channel 17. Here are a few samples. [Click on image to open movie].

Thank you to the Video Production students who produced this news clip of the Chinese Delegation visit. vii-chinese-news-nhs-blog (5.06 MB)

Students in Mary Ann Sniekus’ Video 1 class practice all aspects of producing a studio broadcast.  Multi-camera recording of a live interview is being monitored and directed from an adjacent control booth. Read the rest of this entry »