By: Audrey Bertin
Every summer, several weeks before the start of the school year, 23 dedicated members of the Westlake Technical Entertainment Crew meet to begin preparation for broadcasting the Chaps' varsity football games throughout the season on Time Warner Cable.
The students selected to participate in this program are recruited months in advance and must be completely dedicated to the task of producing broadcasts comparable in quality to those of professional television networks. Crew members are typically expected to dedicate three nights each week to preparing for and carrying out the video broadcasts. Just like the football team, as well as groups like Hyline, the marching band, and cheerleaders, we are often pulled out of class early on Fridays when we are traveling to an away game.
I came into the program for the first time this summer with a basic understanding of the basic operations of the Television Broadcast Crew. I was assigned, along with another newcomer, to the tasks of video engineering and cmoputer graphics. I understood the general idea behind my position, but my knowledge more or less ended there. Still, I was amazed when I walked into the Performing Arts Center on the first day of training to learn just how much was involved in broadcasting live football.
We began the first day with a brief history of the program, followed by seemingly endless hours learning the specifics of football, camera operation, and the layout of the facility from which we would broadcast home games. By the end of the day, my head was spinning and I was exhausted. Would I be able to make it through the week? I felt like I could really use a time out.
The next day was more of the same, but we started delving into the individual roles given to different crew members. Each of us learned what the other members were doing in order to better understand how we would fit into the big picture. Things became progressively easier as the week went on.
It was incredible to see the transformation of all the new members, myself included, happen so quickly, going from wide-eyed novice to confident team member. Because there were more new, inexperienced crew members this year than there have been in recent years, there was some concern about whether the group would be able to function as smoothly as in previous seasons. With that thought looming in the back of their minds, the team leaders of video crew were pleasantly surprised to find the opposite of what they had feared. By the end of the first week of training, although they had only just put their toes in the water, the new camera operators looked confident and capable. I, myself, went from knowing almost nothing to being able to take a camera output signal that had purposefully been altered to settings at wildly inappropriate levels, determine what was wrong, and remotely adjust the camera settings to obtain a high quality, visually pleasing image.
At that point, summer training was almost over and I had to spend the next week mentally preparing myself to tackle the season opener, scheduled for Friday of the first week of school. Hopefully I would be able to take the new skills I had learned and contribute to a great first broadcast!
All in all, I had a great experience this summer transitioning to being a member of the Television Broadcast Crew. One of the most valuable lessons I learned was the importance of teamwork for the success of the program. If any one person is not giving their best effort to help the rest of the group, the end result suffers. Without the dedication and commitment of everyone involved, it would be impossible for us to do what makes us so successful: putting on professional quality television broadcasts to entertain the dedicated fans of Chaps' football.
