Orchard Lake Film Festival

On Friday, February 3rd, several TV Production students from Fitzgerald attended the Orchard Lake Film Festival at West Bloomfield High School. While we did not submit any entries into the contest, we did enjoy listening to the presenters, and watching student films from other schools. My favorite moment from the day was when Gary Schwartz, animator from Single Frame Films, presented a stop motion demonstration.

He selected a series of sounds that were already mapped out for frame duration, and asked student volunteers to create movement frame-by-frame for the duration of the sound. The effect was exciting and presented a unique approach to our class stop motion projects in the future!

Next year I hope that we can enter some of our own student work, as the top prize was a brand new HD camera and the second prize was a $1,000 scholarship from the Motion Picture Institute. Now that we know what to expect from the event, I look forward to what we can bring next year!

Comments? Questions? You know the drill...

Video Valentines!

Fitz News Presents: Video Valentines Send a Message to your Sweetie On the Daily Announcements Too shy to appear on camera? No problem! You can write out your message, and we will air it on screen with fun Valentine’s Day hearts and candy. $1.00 Written Message $5.00 Video Message February 6 – February 10 All Lunch Hours Video Valentines will air February 14th 5th Hour on Fitz News

The Do's & Don'ts at Fitzgerald

As we sit back and observe the comings and goings at Fitzgerald, a few things come to our attention. It seems that there are certain situations in which our students have a hard time knowing what behavior is expected of them. At this stage in the game, it is assumed by most secondary teachers that these expectations have been taught previously... but what if they haven't? Fitzgerald staff has decided that it's important to take some time to teach, or remind, students what their behavior should be in various situations, and how that behavior impacts our school's reputation as a whole.

In order to make this experience a little more entertaining, the administration asked our class to create some videos that would teach the proper behaviors. We had some fun putting together our first video in class, and I really enjoyed being able to work with the whole class on this project!

Check out the video, and leave us a comment. If you helped make the video, let me know what you thought about the experience and the final product. Do you have any thoughts on the behavior at Fitzgerald? Do you think things like how to behave in an assembly should be taught in high school? I'd love to hear your feedback!

The PAWS PSA Contest

The PAWS Public Service Announcement Contest has begun! The Advanced TV Production students each created their own PSA for the Detroit Bully Crew, C.H.A.I.N.E.D. Inc, or the All About Animals Clinic. We screened the videos in class with Ms. Akins' AP Biology students, and voted on our favorites. The top videos in each category were then uploaded to the Fitzgerald's PAWS Facebook Page.

Check out the videos on the Fitzgerald's PAWS Facebook page, and vote for the best one by "liking" it. The video with the most votes by December 16th will win a cash prize!!!

The P.A.W.S. Project Continues

Students in the Advanced TV Production classes met with representatives from local animal welfare organizations to hear about their mission and incorporate information into the public service announcements they are creating.

Last week, Michelle Way from the World Animal Awareness Society spoke to the students about getting the message about animals out to a large audience, and how to incorporate the best images & video into their projects. She gave them information about fair use sites such as archive.org and how to request permission to use other people's pictures and videos. Michelle will return next week to check out the progress on the PSA's and offer her advice.

Students also had the opportunity to hear from the Detroit Bully Crew, and meet their special spokes-dog, Tank. Tank's story touched the hearts of the class, and helped to motivate them to create awareness about the mistreatment of pit bulls, and all dogs. Tank was very well behaved and greeted every student with a slobbery hello. The DBC showed pictures of what Tank had been through and explained why they want to help in Detroit, and the importance of spaying and neutering our animals. They can't wait to see what the students come up with for their PSA's and allowed the students to use their website as a reference. They also gave every one of the students their own Detroit Bully Crew T-shirt which was so generous and thoughtful of them! What an amazing experience for our class!

What did you think of the presentations? Do you have any questions for WA2S or DBC? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share about the P.A.W.S. experience so far?

Advanced TV Production Field Trip

On Thursday, October 27th the Advanced TV Production class took a field trip to All About Animals in Warren. We were able to tour the facility and learn about what they do, in order to help them with our Service Learning Project called PAWS. PAWS stands for Promoting Academics with Service and allows our students to experience real-world application of skills they are learning in class in order to help out their own community. Due to the incredible problem with stray and feral cats and dogs in the Warren community, Fitzgerald staff has chosen this organization to donate their service to.

Advanced TV Production students will be creating Public Service Announcements, filming workshops at the clinic, and helping out with video services in any way the clinic needs. This pioneer project has inspired the students to create motivational music videos, filled with facts about Warren and Detroit's stray and feral animal problem. These videos will be played on the Fitz News Show to help inspire other students to join the PAWS program and also to educate our own community. Check out the pictures from our trip!

We will post updates of our projects throughout the year. What ways do you think you would like to participate? What do you think of the PAWS project? How can Fitzgerald help? What other organizations should we team up with in the future? Leave me a comment!!!

Video Blocks Competition

Hey everyone, as you probably know by now, earlier this year I entered us in the Video Blocks Editing Station Competition. We took a picture of one of our editing stations, entered it, then people could vote on which editing station they liked. We had so much help and support from students, teachers, staff members, friends and family, that we remained in the top 6 throughout the whole competition! After the final count... the results came in... and we took FIFTH PLACE with this picture:



Although we didn't win that brand new camera, we still won something pretty cool, free access to Stock Footage and Production Music! This will definitely come in handy! Out of over 300 entries, 5th place is great! I can't wait to enter again next year! Thanks again for all of your votes and sorry about the constant email reminders!

Check out the video blocks site by clicking here: Video Blocks. For information about how to access the footage and our member login, send me an email or find out in class.


I want to hear from you! If you know how we can do better next year, leave a comment with some ideas! Also, do you think next year we should use a picture of the whole studio, or was the minimalist effect better? Include your name in your comment please!