Every two weeks, you get to enjoy a ten-minute broadcast called Mustang Mix during third period. While enjoying the end result of Mustang Mix, it’s nice to appreciate the immense effort that is put forth into these broadcasts by the Advanced Video Productions team.

Mustang Mix is a biweekly broadcast whose main goal is to inform students on campus about the current events and activities. Gathering ideas or “pitches,” the students then pitch their video ideas to the producer. The producer then finalizes his or her choice and approves three ideas to film. After the pitch has been approved, the group then creates a “shot-list,” which is essentially a script, but shorter and without dialogue.

After casting an idea, the group starts to film their creations in the beginning of the week. Typically, the filming takes one to two days, or a weekend, to complete. Even filming during their free time time at break or after school, the students work diligently to get their video clips filmed. When the video clips have all been shot, the long process of editing begins.

While editing seems like a mere cropping or trimming of videos, it is quite the opposite. Editing consists of concisely positioning the video to get the point across, as well as small but necessary things like coloring. Recoloring is sometimes required in editing a video to make the videos appear better. For a two minute video, Mary Liu (10) jokingly said, “It can take me from 2 to 5 hours to edit, and that’s if everything goes to plan… which it usually doesn’t.”

Following the editing, the member will give the video to the producer. The producer will then proofwatch the video and suggest changes. The student revises their clip and will then show Mr. Cadra, the Advanced Video Productions class teacher, who also inputs his thoughts. Then, the student returns to editing once again and finalizes any last touches to the video and turns it in. When all the video pieces have been officially approved, the director will coalesce the clips into one ten-minute broadcast. Following this, the producer will add all the transitions.

The Advanced Video Productions class is without a doubt a rigorous course that involves a lot of dedication and hard work, but this team has a great time and experience creating their pieces. Next time you watch a Mustang Mix episode during your third period class, don’t forget to appreciate the great effort put into the formation of the broadcast.