The collaboration between North Bergen High School and Cablevision’s MSG Varsity program, in which high school students shoot video at sporting events and create their own specials for television and the web, has proved to be a learning experience for the aspiring journalists.
MSG Varsity is a 24/7 television channel that Cablevision launched in September 2009. It is only dedicated to high school sports, with much of its footage, scores and stats being provided from high school students. Students film sporting events and other high school activities which are streamed at msgvarsity.com and on the cable television channel. For North Bergen subscribers, it is channel 14 or 614.
North Bergen signed a two-year contract last September, agreeing to provide MSG Varsity with footage in turn for grants, scholarships and equipment.
English and journalism teacher Jackie McGowan said that out of two journalism classes consisting of 60 students she chose junior Lilian Izquierdo and senior Breanna Johnson to take on the broadcast assignments.
“You have to know what you’re doing. You have to be prepared with your questions.”—Breanna Johnson
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“It brought it to life,” said Johnson.
‘It’s thrilling’
As part of MSG Varsity, North Bergen received a $1,000 stipend for McGowan to serve as the advisor, a $2,000 grant for the high school to support media creation, a Canon HV20 camcorder, and a $1,000 scholarship to be awarded to graduating seniors.
MSG Varsity staff members also went to North Bergen High School and taught students about what to cover and how to do it, as well as trained them how to use the media and technology they were provided with.
“We learned a lot with the camera and editing,” said Izquierdo, who is considering a career in journalism, as well as serving in the Marines. “We’re all very fresh to this. We didn’t know anything about the camera at all.”
Now they shoot footage and upload it onto their iMac computers, where they edit it with Final Cut Pro.
Johnson said at first she was nervous about taking part in the program because of her lack of computer skills, but now she said she has improved and feels more ready for college. In September she will attend New Jersey City University.
“It’s thrilling because it makes it real for them,” said McGowan.
Learning experience
Izquierdo said that even with the training and support from MSG Varsity, shooting video footage has been a learning process.
An attempted basketball recording went “pretty badly” said Izquierdo, because they were not prepared for the large student body, camera angles and setting up the tripod.
The footage had to be scrapped, but when they taped a pep rally they already could see an improvement.
“[I learned] to break out of my shell,” said Johnson. “To meet new people, you can’t be so shy. You have to know what you’re doing. You have to be prepared with your questions.”
The students have also taped football, soccer and upcoming features on the North Bergen Student Council fundraising for Haiti and on the high school wrestling star Chris Duran.
For the piece on Duran, who Izquierdo said is the first North Bergen wrestler to make State Championships and who is this week’s Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Week (see Sports), they shot video at the team’s practice and edited the footage to include voice-overs.
They also hope to make a blooper reel of some of the funny footage at the end of the year.
School spirit
Johnson hopes the program can expand to include more students.
McGowan also said that previously footage on MSG Varsity’s website was only viewable by Cablevision subscribers, but that the cable channel has been working out a way for it to be viewable for all North Bergen students. She hoped more students would be able to see the footage.
Still, they were happy to be a part of MSG.
“I think it’s interesting because everybody gets to see how your school is like and the people that are involved in it,” said Johnson.
Tricia Tirella may be reached at TriciaT@hudsonreporter.com.