To get a better understanding of video production, two of the teachers in the TIIP grant, Leslie Hicks and Adriana Chavira, took a multi-media class through UCLA Extension that taught them the basics of shooting and editing a video. 

 This was just the start.

Filmmaking

We decided that it was necessary to expand our scope and we added a new member to our team, James Morrison, who, besides teaching a full-load of biology classes, is the media and film-making teacher at our school. Using grant monies, Mr. Morrison sought the advice of experts in the field of digital film-editing and incorporated these ideas into his classes.

The results were little short of spectacular.

L.A. After Dark

Students from Mr. Morrison's media class won national recognition as Best Documentary at the 2011 National Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association's High School Journalism Convention film show. This was the first submission that our school had made to any film competition.

Mr. Morrison is now working with faculty and students to create in-house media productions describing our school rules, regulation, procedures, and traditions, to help incoming students and faculty understand the unique qualities of our school.

Media Convergence

Newspaper adviser Adriana Chavira attended additional multimedia workshops to learn how to shoot and edit video so introduce media convergence to her journalism students. The newspaper staff is not only writing stories or shooting photographs, they are also shooting videos and creating audioslides.