School: Shawnee Mission West High School
Class: Advanced Video Production
Instructor: Zachary Powell
Client: Variety of teachers, coaches, and school programs
Problem: How can we use video and digital media to help promote the great things happening in our school and connect students with the programs, clubs, and opportunities available to them?
Summary
Students led a school-wide media production project focused on creating promotional content for various teachers, coaches, and school programs. After gathering client requests via school email and in-person outreach, students divided up responsibilities by month and project type. Deliverables included commercials, promos, and hype videos for school clubs, academic programs, and individual teacher initiatives—such as a video adaptation of a poem for a staff meeting and a commercial for the SAIL tutoring program. Final products were shared across the school on public TVs and with specific clients for targeted use. While students did not work with outside experts this year, there are plans to incorporate advertising professionals in the future and to expand the project to serve community clients next year.
Takeaways
Students grew essential skills such as clear and sustained communication with the client throughout the project, which was the biggest gain. In some cases, the students had to revise the project to the client’s approval. This was a big moment of reflection and growth.
Advice
Teach the importance of persistence in communication; clarity in defining things with the client is also important.
Standards/Learning Targets
- Communication with clients.
- Preproduction, production, and post-production goals.
- First, storyboarding. For the second, the exposure triangle and depth of field. For the third, sound and color grading (and for some, the ability to caption).