[BHS etree] MISC: CAS Video program in the news!

[bhs at idiom.com]

contact: Kalima Rose [mailto:krose at policylink.org]

      Berkeley High Students Analyze Media By Making It
      Aliza Nadi, North Gate News, 12/8/2004



      BERKELEY--Sixteen-year-old Rafael de la Torre is adding the last few
touches to his second project of the school year--a 60 second film brimming
with dissolves, slow motion effects and titles.

      "Black in the beginning, black in the end, fade out the music,"
Dharini Rasiah, his teacher, yells across the room. "Today is the last day,
so make it good."

      De la Torre is one of the 28 juniors in Rasiah's third period Advanced
Video Production class at Berkeley High School. And he, like his classmates,
is also a force for change, according to their teacher.

      "We want them to be more conscious producers of media so they don't
imitate mainstream media," says Rasiah. "Kids are not necessarily always
interested in investigating social or political issues in their videos."

      The seven year-old Advanced Video Production class which is sustained
by school district grants, parent contributions, and fundraising, is part of
CAS--Berkeley High's Communication Arts and Sciences program, one that
Rasiah describes as a social justice program with a multimedia theme. The
class is part of a comprehensive multimedia curriculum that all grades in
CAS partake in. By they time they graduate, students in the program will
have taken courses in radio, television, web design, and digital
photography.

      Mainstream media has left teenagers awash in messages from reality
shows and cable television, and as an antidote, Rasiah's students are
producing news packages and documentaries and engaging in fiction
storytelling. The question, "What is the most just way to build community?"
has become their mantra.

      "It doesn't have to be a documentary to have an educational
component," says Rasiah, a slender woman of Sri Lankan descent who is 36
only by age, not appearance. She wears her long wavy dark hair pulled
tightly in a ponytail and sports a slightly grungy look - blue jeans and
thick-soled boots on a Tuesday. All traces of the serious expression that
can be found normally on her face vanish when she bursts into a smile, which
is often in this classroom.

      Her undertaking is simple, but not commonly found--teaching her
students how to produce videos while being mindful of issues that are of
concern to real teenagers and people of color. And while most teens wade
through the signals they receive from mainstream television, Rasiah's
students are leaving behind pedestrian and detached forms of media, like
reality television, and producing what she calls, "alternative media."
"Teachers around here don't teach content, just technical skills. In our
class, we do both," she says.

      Fully developed video production classes like this one and a media
integrated program as thorough as CAS are the only ones of their kind in the
Bay Area, according to Rasiah. However, she says, this fusion of media and
academia is now serving as a prototype for high schools in the area, which
are slowly following the footsteps of CAS and offering similar programs.

      De la Torre, who resembles the proverbial "popular kid"--tall and
good-looking, has already absorbed Rasiah's message. "My thought on reality
TV is like a really bad dream, or in this case, really bad production," he
says. "Why don't they make a show with real people and real issues?"

      The students tackled social and political issues and fleshed them out
in Public Service Announcements, some of which applied to this year's
elections. One student decided to focus on the implications of the ballot
measure liberalizing the Three Strikes law, another on illiteracy among
teens. The PSA on racial profiling probably hit closer to home here at one
of the most racially and ethnically diverse high schools in the nation.
Before the PSAs, the students finished a 20-shot sequence, and they will
finish the semester with a longer work of fiction, all within the framework
of multiculturalism.

      Movie posters from "A Beautiful Mind" and "Amelie" flank the walls of
their spacious classroom and flags from around the world are painted on the
ceiling. Mac computers, uploaded with video editing software like Adobe
Premiere and Final Cut Pro, line the perimeters of their workspace. There is
another room that houses more than a dozen Mini DV cameras, tripods, and
audio and lighting equipment.

      Rasiah intersperses her instructions with orders telling the zealous
bunch to quiet down. She flits around the room like a butterfly, moving from
one workstation to another and putting on headphones plugged into the
computers. She watches the PSAs alongside their producers - excitable
teenagers who are treading into new creative territory. They exchange
high-fives. A pair of students sits at each workstation, fine-tuning the
audio and special effects of their pieces.

      "We are taught to experiment with ideas and equipment, try to do
something out of the ordinary, be creative," says De la Torre, adjusting the
audio levels of his project.

      These juniors learn aspects of video production that range from the
most basic to more sophisticated - proper use of tripods and microphones,
lighting and audio mixing, framing and composition. Their judgment comes
into play when deciding on just the right backgrounds for an interview. They
are learning the ins and outs of non-linear editing and story structure for
documentary and fiction.

      Over one thousand videos, with every student project ever produced,
sit in drawers in the classroom.

      In many of their projects, the juniors will collaborate with the
English and History classes. "CAS is different because we integrate media in
our whole academic program," says Rasiah. By using this media hook, she
says, students have become more engaged in their academic classes.

      "CAS makes it mandatory, but I'm really privileged," says
fifteen-year-old Dominique Bonilla. "In our time, all the information we get
is from the media. You have to understand media."

      And she inspires her students to actively participate in society. "The
process of social change happens by doing service learning internships."

      Each student is required to participate in internships that build
social consciousness, like teaching video at local schools or non-profit
organizations, producing radio shows on social justice topics on KPFB in
Berkeley, or learning to curate film festivals like Screenagers: Bay Area
High School Film Festival.

      It all comes together for sixteen-year-old Yejide Najee-Ullah, "After
you have become acclimated with the process of doing your own media, you can
start to release information to the world, about the world, as you see it."




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