Every two weeks, Yorba Linda High School Mustangs get to enjoy a ten-minute broadcast, known as Mustang Mix, during their third period. While Mustangs only see the end result of Mustang Mix, it’s nice to appreciate the significant effort that is put forth into each of these broadcasts by the Advanced Video Productions team.

Mustang Mix is a biweekly broadcast whose main goal is to inform students about the current events and activities occurring around campus. The process begins with the students formulating video ideas or “pitches,” and giving them to the producer. The producers then finalize their choice and approve three ideas to film. After approval, the group creates a “shot-list,” which is essentially a script, but shorter and without dialogue.

Then, the filming process commences. Towards the beginning of the week, the group starts to film their idea. Typically, filming takes one to two days or one weekend to complete. Many times, the team will spend their free time to continue filming at break or after school. When the video clips have all been shot, the long operation of editing begins.

Contrary to popular belief, editing is not like a mere crop or trim of videos. Rather, it is one of the toughest parts of Mustang Mix productions, entailling smooth transitions, graphics, background sounds, and other technicalities. Editing consists of concisely positioning the video to get the main point across, as well as small but necessary things like recoloring, which is sometimes required in editing a video to make the videos appear better. For a two minute video, Mary Liu (12) 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 edits, the video is sent to the producer, who then watches the video and suggests changes. The clips are revised and then showed to Mr. Cadra, the Advanced Video Productions class teacher, who also inputs his thoughts. Once again, the video goes back to the editing process and is finalized with any last touches before turning it in. When all the video pieces have been officially approved, the director will coalesce the clips into a ten-minute broadcast. Following this, the producer will add the transitions.

The Advanced Video Productions class is without a doubt a rigorous course that involves an incredible amount of dedication and hard work. Through it all, this team of “Vid Pro” students have memorable experiences creating their pieces. So, the next time you watch a Mustang Mix episode during your third period class, don’t forget to appreciate the immense amount of effort put into the formation of the broadcast.