I really enjoyed my recent high school video production consultation engagement with Magnolia Science Academy 2 this spring. The engagement started in June 2022 when a grant writer contacted me through my website about working with the school. They were trying to win a grant related to illustrating concepts in positive behavioral interventions integrated with video production. Grant writer Janine Perron liked my background as a teacher, experience in setting up school video studios, and presence in Southern California.
The school already had a set of students creating video content on a regular basis. The tools the students were using had been those easily at their disposal: their smartphones, webcams, and other personal devices they had. The school wanted to provide access to higher quality production equipment as well as some video production training and workflows. The grant also built in some drama and script writing training that was provided by a different contractor.
Challenges
In September, the the grant writer updated me that the school had been awarded the grant. Unfortunately the original grant writer encountered a challenge that prevented her from continuing her work in the fall. Thankfully, Bryant Olandes, the newly hired Director of Advancement stepped in and helped move the execution of the grant forward.
The next step in the high school video production consultation involved preparing a specific list of equipment for the school to buy and a training plan to match. We completed a couple of consultation zoom calls including the students who were already actively making videos. We discussed what direction the students would like to grow in with production value and new equipment. They purchased the video gear in December/January. We scheduled training sessions from late March through early May.
Highlights
Some of the highlights of this engagement for me were the days where I got to work with the high school student video creators. It was fun going over how to handle/use equipment and to see some of the “lights go on” for these young people. In fact, they had already been creating videos in their own right with the tools there and their disposal. All I was doing was providing another layer of learning with more advanced gear than they had before and some exposure to higher level video production concerns related to raising production values, working with a team, or ensuring safety on the set.
Lessons learned:
Every high school video production consultation project requires some element of management/supervision to stay on track. We encountered challenges related to the handoff from the grant writer to a district coordinator. This negatively affected the project slowing progress toward delivery. The lesson learned is make sure to create a target timeline including dates on calendars. Prepare to deliver against the timeline rather than creating the schedule ad hoc. The timeline can be adjusted as needed. In the busy life of educators and consultants, it is easy to get delayed until we are working to beat deadlines. 🙂
