Penn-Trafford video students snag awards, adjust to producing amid pandemic

The students who create Penn-Trafford TV, the school district’s in-house television broadcasts, brought home 16 nominations and six awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Mid-Atlantic Region High School Production Awards.

Both are school records.

But there was barely any time to enjoy their success before schools statewide were shut down for the year amid the coronavirus pandemic. Video production students suddenly found themselves recording and editing their broadcasts from home.

“We did 13 broadcasts during the quarantine,” said video production teacher Steve Vinton. “We started doing shows Wednesdays and Fridays. We’d have a class meeting with all 21 students on Mondays, and talk about the (following week’s) shows, so we had about a week-and-a-half to pull a show together.”

Senior Madison Pleins, who did much of the editing work, would schedule a Google Meet with student news anchors while planning for the next show.

“I learned a lot,” said Pleins, 18. “Reaching out to classmates to make sure they’re editing their ‘tosses’ in our scripts, making sure anchors have similar setups, and making sure all the videos are good to go for the show.”

And unlike when school was in session, video production students don’t all have access to the same video editing software at home that’s available in the high school multimedia studio.

“In class we can all use (Adobe) Premiere and Final Cut. And now that we’re at home, some people don’t have those tools. So they’re using iMovie and (software) that’s, maybe, not as advanced. So it’s been tough to adjust to that when we’re editing the shows.”

Vinton had to strike a balance between recognizing what each student would be able to do from home and making sure the work got done.

“I needed to be flexible enough to work with it, but still be pretty firm about a deadline,” Vinton said.

It’s a long way from the work the students submitted to the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Mid-Atlantic branch.

Senior Nick Konopka, 18, put together a short-form entertainment package about the Rangos Giant Cinema at the Carnegie Science Center, which meant doing his work well outside the classroom.

“On a smaller scale for our news packages, we’ll contact students and teachers and meet up during study halls,” Konopka said. “This one required me to contact the science center, set a meeting, drive to Pittsburgh, and it was kind of a cool experience to do that in real life.”

Touching on events outside of school has been a rewarding experience for several of Vinton’s students, both on an emotional and academic level: the two-way tie for first place in NATAS’ Light News category was between two Penn-Trafford TV pieces, both about children who face medical adversity and the struggle their families undergo.

“We got to tell someone’s story, and that was really powerful,” said Pleins, who along with Emily Coles produced a piece on Lilli Durante. Lilli struggles with optic glioma but was also inspired to create a toy drive for other child patients at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where she goes for treatments.

The real-world experience Penn-Trafford TV students have under their belts made a transition to online learning a little easier.

“I think for the senior class, it’s a great opportunity for us to practice getting into a routine for how the next step of our lives will be,” said senior Madi Kerrigan, 18, who won awards in NATAS’ Short Form category as well as its Commercial category.

Vinton said he’s received emails from teachers and administrators thanking him and the video production students for continuing the “Wake Up Warriors” show.

“They said it kind of provides a sense of normalcy,” Vinton said. “Trying to figure out how to put this together, engage 21 people and make it as professional-looking as possible was no small task. But I love our live show, and trying to figure out how to keep it going was crazy, but very exhilarating, too.”