With students Alecks Biskis and Lauren Shinozuka operating the cameras, Kaitlin Inamasu (obscured) directs the shooting of a scene for an instructional video for Maui Medical Group, a project of the Baldwin High School Media and Video Production Club. The cameras for the program were purchased with a grant from the Maui Economic Development Board's Ke Alahele Education Fund, allowing teacher/adviser Trisha Roy to expand the school's student broadcasting program. Students Chelsea Grimm (rear) and Sidra Jabbar observe the recording session.

Baldwin High media club offers opportunities in broadcast journalism

Kaitlin Inamasu wants to tell stories about what is happening in the world. A Baldwin High School sophomore, she’s already mapping out her options for becoming a television news producer telling the major stories of the day.

Aleks Biskis wants to tell stories that entertain while they explain what is happening in the world. A Baldwin High junior, he’s seeing opportunities as a videographer, writer, producer, director, cameraperson — or all of the above.

They’re among 13 students given the opportunity to learn video production as part of a new extracurricular program at Baldwin supported by the Department of Education’s Media Resources section, with a boost from the Maui Economic Development Board’s Ke Alahele Education Fund.

The 2008-09 school year was the first year for the Baldwin High School Media and Video Production group, expanding on SCHWA, the campus broadcasting club. Baldwin Principal Natalie Gonsalves supported the project, as did DOE Maui District Media Specialist Mark Hymas, who provided technical training and mentoring in video production.

But as SCHWA coordinator Trisha Roy developed a business plan for the project last year, she realized there just wasn’t enough money to put all the pieces together.

“Just putting together the detailed budget, when I added it all up, it came to more than $25,000 just for the equipment we needed to get started,” Roy said.

The school is allocated funds for media education, enough for essential gear for setting up a broadcasting control unit. Basic editing systems and software are on loan from the Maui District.

Then, Roy said, Gonsalves and school grant writer Amy Ancheta suggested applying to Ke Alahele. A $5,000 educational grant bought the program two Panasonic camcorders, key components in training students in video production.

It all culminated this spring in a project to develop instructional videos for the Maui Medical Group aimed at helping the physicians’ group instruct its staff in dealing with situations they may encounter.

MEDB President Jeanne Unemori Skog said the Baldwin High experience is an example of how the Ke Alahele Education Fund is filling gaps as Maui District schools seek to expand opportunities for students while coping with limited resources.

“Trisha Roy’s dedication to her students is an inspiration to MEDB as we seek to promote science, technology, engineering and math education programs in the schools. Teachers who are taking the extra steps for their students deserve our fullest support,” Skog said.

As he prepared to edit a video segment before the end of the school year, Biskis explained that his piece in the Maui Medical Group production dealt with appropriate responses when the staff must deal with an angry patient. For each segment, Video Production students prepare a script and story board, direct and videotape Maui Medical Group personnel playing different roles and edit the videotapes to be reproduced as an instructional DVD for the medical group.

“It was more than showing the good situation and the bad situation. It was showing what you don’t do and what you should do in the different situations,” Biskis said.

It was not an entirely new experience for Biskis, who previously took courses on video production with Akaku: Maui Community Television. But with DOE Media Specialist Hymas providing both technical instruction and mentoring, the Baldwin media program allowed Biskis to build on his basic knowledge to develop his personal goals.

“I didn’t really get into everything. For me, the first thing I’d like to get into probably is the directing, the four-three-two, camera, action, being in control of telling the story. I like telling the stories,” he said.

Sophomore Kaitlin Inamasu focuses on the scene she's directing for the Baldwin High School Media and Video Production Club. A year spent learning media technology is spurring Inamasu toward a future in journalism. “The thing I like is broadcast journalism, the way we tell the stories, how we are sharing information and knowledge,” she said.

Inamasu likes telling stories too, but her excitement level rises when she’s whipping up a story line for the camera, engaging in journalistic writing that deals with real-life situations. She appreciates what she learned from the Maui Medical Group project, which was more of a dramatic presentation of imagined situations, rather than telling a story of real events as would be done in broadcast journalism.

“It was OK, but it wasn’t the same,” she said, of the medical group project. “The thing I like is broadcast journalism, the way we tell the stories, how we are sharing information and knowledge.”

But she appreciates the training she’s received in the technology of story telling in a broadcast medium, giving her insights into what she still needs to learn about the field of video journalism.

“It’s so cool because now I can picture myself doing that.”

That was Trisha Roy’s goal in taking on the added responsibilities as adviser to the SCHWA to coordinating Media and Video Production. Admitting she knew little about media technology herself, she said she realized it is important to offer the opportunities to students, “especially with the challenge of providing for kids today who are so technologically savvy.”