Among the new courses offered this year at Ridge is Media and Video Productions, a class that allows students to explore the realm of the art of video imaging. This includes technical aspects of the art such as digitization and editing as well as aspects like theory, criticism, and creativity. But what exactly do students do in this class?
Productions students are currently working on a project entailing the creation of a suspenseful scene. Keeping true with the Halloween facet of October, students are to create a scene that fits the horror genre but lacks any gore, screams, blood, or violence.
Students are also learning the history of image making, storytelling, and editing as well as film-making vocabulary and the use of software and equipment. Additionally, they observe clips from movie classics in order to recognize aesthetic methods utilized, important decisions made, directing choices, and evidence of the great collaboration required to make a movie. By the end of the year, all Productions students will be creating independent short films—with an original screenplay and score—as their final project. Mr. Ortega, who teaches Photography I, II, and III as well as Media and Video Productions here at Ridge, also noted that they will be visiting to visit the Museum of Moving Image later in the year.
This class has been well-received so far and well-anticipated by those who are not currently taking it.
“I think it’s an awesome idea and I would love to take the class,” comments Maddy Bellard ‘15. “I feel like it’s really innovative and lets kids explore their interests.” Many students have expressed similar feelings.
Mr. Ortega also provided insight as to the reinstating of this course. When Mr. Ortega was first hired as a photography teacher in 2007, there was, in fact, a video course being offered. This old course was focused more on commercial art and broadcast television and was not a part of the fine arts department. Over the course of a few years, Mr. Ortega started the Photography Club.
After the video course was suspended, video started being incorporated into the Photography Club, which then changed its name to Ridge Productions. Ridge Productions photographs and video-records theater productions, sporting events, and independent projects. With the beginning of collaboration with MSG Varsity in 2009 came new equipment and a venue to better display the club’s work. For the past three years, Ridge Productions has won over $12,000 in regional competitions.
“These winnings drew the interest of other students,” says Mr. Ortega. “The administration took notice of a vocation not being offered by our school that many students wanted.”
And thus, by the end of 2012, the Board of Education decided to reinstate the video course. However, this time the course is part of the fine arts department, a development that Mr. Ortega stresses as significant, because it opens doors and “allows more freedom for students to explore the medium with their ideas and allow experimentation of the materials, a sharp contrast to the structure of the old commercial video course.”
Media and Video Productions offers students a chance to experience something many people do not get the opportunity to be involved in despite their interest in things like film production or sound editing. This class can open up doors for many students career-wise or stimulate a love for something that might never have been found otherwise.
“I feel great about where this course is headed,” Mr. Ortega expressed in an interview. “And I hope to funnel my enthusiasm to my students. I feel anyone that thinks they have a story to tell should be in this class and not only write about their unique experiences but watch as it comes alive in film.”