CCSD-TV Student Courses
The Department of Communications at Clarkstown High School South holds a multi-faceted philosophy that incorporates many objectives. Students are provided with theoretical, hands-on, and historical foundations that they later use in college communications programs and their eventual fields of employment.
Students learn through manipulation of equipment as well as through formalized classroom instruction. All participants are exposed to all elements of a TV studio production involving positions in front of the camera as well as positions behind the scenes. A culminating video production is required of all students enrolled in television production courses ranging in length from 30 second public service announcements to 10 minute new magazine reports. All productions are evaluated for content, style, imagination and technical competence.
Upon completion, students leave the program having been changed. They are no longer passive armchair receivers of television. Rather, they emerge as active, participatory, and discriminating viewers capable of creating and transmitting messages through a medium that will continue to grow in its impact on their every day lives as well as upon society in general.
TELEVISION PRODUCTION
A production based approach will provide students with hands-on experience at all the positions involved in creating a television program. All aspects of production, including scripting, camera work, audio mixing, video effects mixing, producing, directing, and editing, will be covered. In addition to acquiring marketable career skills, students also gain practical experience through the cable-casting of regularly scheduled Clarkstown television productions.
BROADCAST JOURNALISM
This course aims to expose students to the fundamentals of broadcast journalism. Students are involved in producing, editing, and shooting all segments of the Clarkstown Video Magazine. This weekly news magazine is braodcasted to the Clarkstown community on the educational access channel every Thursday evening, as well as twice daily in the afternoon and evening. Providing this showcase gives students the opportunity for feedback and a true to life taste of broadcast deadlines, pressures, and rewards.
SPECIAL TOPICS IN BROADCAST JOURNALISM
Students who have fulfilled the Broadcast Journalism prerequisite round out their journalistic skills. With this senior level course they become student executive producers of the Clarkstown Video Magazine, feature producers of news segments, and outreach contacts to the district's elementary and secondary schools. This course provides the ability to combine the skills of managing people, equipment, and time to produce a quality community television news magazine.
SPECIAL TOPICS IN TELEVISION PRODUCTION-HONORS
There are two primary goals for students enrolled in this course. The first is to build upon the production and editing skills learned in the Television Production course. The second goal is to expose students to the technological end of television production. This second goal is achieved through intensive textbook instruction that leaves the student with a comprehensive knowledge base about what makes television work, how better production values are achieved, and how the various pieces of professional video equipment work together to create today's television programming.
NEW!! RADIO PRODUCTION