Huntington Video Program Flourishes
The unique video program at Huntington High School continues to flourish. This fall, students have completely filled two Video 1 classes, while still other teenagers are enrolled in the challenging Video 2-3 combination class.
The program has been running on overdrive ever since the Huntington Foundation teamed up with the district to help fund the purchase of state-of-the-art Apple Mac computers for the video lab. In addition to dozens of students in regular video classes, three student-interns are learning about the ins and outs of videography while working with teacher Heather Swan. Three other students are working on video portfolios.
"I believe the new computers have contributed to the influx in students enrolled in the video classes," Mrs. Swan said matter-of-factly. She has been the driving force behind Huntington's program. "I am excited to see so many students taking an interest in this course. If the high enrollment continues, we hope it will allow us the opportunity to run separate Video 2 and Video 3 classes in the future."
The two courses have been combined for the past few years. That has resulted in an expected impact on both learning and productivity. "This year, we also have the largest number of students graduating from the program with the intention of pursuing a career in the film industry," Mrs. Swan said.
Although they haven't settled on exactly which respective colleges they will be attending, seniors Paul Mazzotta, John Jenne, David Rosenberg, Tom Corrao and David Lillienstein are eyeing further film study at Chapman, New York University, the University of Southern California, Emerson and the School of Visual Arts.
Huntington video students will again be entering several film festivals and contests. The round of festivals is traditionally kicked-off at the Long Island Media Arts Show at Five Towns College in March. "We are always looking for new outlets for our students to get recognized," Mrs. Swan said.
Participation in another lip dub is also planned after last year's was a wild success. A lip dub is typically a type of music video that involves lip syncing and audio dubs and is filmed in a way that makes participants take on a look of spontaneity and the image of having an exceedingly good time.
"Last year's lip dub was so much fun for the 150-plus students that got involved," Mrs. Swan said. "It was entered and accepted as a finalist in the Reel Teens Festival in Hunter, New York. They had 486 entries and only 80 made the final cut."
Along with the lip dub, Huntington student Jesse Sheridan's "Fireflies" video was also a finalist in the Reel Teens Festival. "We are hoping to once again get the school involved in another huge lip dub endeavor sometime in January," Mrs. Swan said.
Huntington High School's first ever film festival was held last spring and was also viewed as a success. Another one is planned for Thursday, May 26 in the high school auditorium. Admission will again be free and open to the public.
Since the high school video club is also now in full swing, the school's newscast will soon resume. The broadcast takes the form of a typical news show, complete with anchors. It is repeated throughout the day on TV panels around the building.
"We are hoping to grow the scope of information and videos being shown on the newscast," Mrs. Swan said. "Sometime in the near future we hope to have all classrooms equipped with wall-mounted televisions so we can broadcast the morning announcements live. This would require us to also add a TV broadcasting class to the curriculum and all the equipment for live feeds."
Those associated with the video program and newscast hope the future includes HD cameras and a teleprompter. "These items will be a great addition to the quality of work we will be able to produce and a great addition to the filming of the newscast and class projects," Mrs. Swan said.