My name is Thomas Bednarski and I was the sports anchor alongside Kayla Derenda for WACS News. Next year I plan on graduating and then pursuing both my academic and baseball careers at Niagara University. I decided to take Multimedia Production, commonly known as WACS News, because some of my friends in the past have taken the class. My interest in this class was also sparked from the funny videos that classes in years past have produced.

Quality of work is a very important aspect of WACS News. As the year progressed, so did the quality of videos I put out. The first video that I put out was a very poorly filmed highlight reel of the girls varsity basketball team. The video did not even contain any sort of talking or music. One of my most recent projects, the new concession stand video, was by far my best. I talked with Mr. McCormick about the construction of the concession stand and also got to take a tour of the new building. In terms of making a successful video the process is not as easy or quick as it may seem. You have to set up an interview (if that’s part of your video), record the video, put it into iMovie, edit it and lastly write about your story to go along with the video you produced for both the WACS News YouTube channel and the site itself. When it comes to breaking down the little things that make up a good video, editing plays a major role in the creation of a great story. At the start of the year I was completely oblivious to how to operate iMovie and working with the iMacs. I learned over time that making cuts to videos is important so that you do not hear or see things that have no relevance to your specific video. For example, cutting out things like “um” before someone speaks in an interview can change a video. Also b-roll is something that is needed when making a solid video. If there is just a constant clip with no change the viewer will get bored which is the main reason why you want the video to have movement and change around every five seconds.

Before taking this class there are some things that students should know. In order to be successful in this class a good amount of effort must be put forth. A lot of kids took this class mainly because it was thought to be an easy “blow off” type class. However, this is not the case by any means. If you’re going to take this class be prepared for some awkward and especially stressful situations. Video production and anchoring can lead to many of those scenarios. The main challenge that I faced throughout the year was getting over my fear of being on camera. Whether anyone noticed or not I absolutely hated having to film while the entire class was silent only hearing me. It wasn’t until Kayla Derenda joined me on the sportscast that things became easier. We developed probably the most cringeworthy intro of all time. The signature “It’s that time, sports time!”. By the end of the video when we do our closing I give myself a nickname every episode that usually is funny or has some sort of relation to the video. An area that I definitely could have improved in was my video quality. For a long time my videos were lack luster. Actually they were just plain bad. Looking back on some of the stories I really wish more effort would have been put into the making of them.

My skills throughout the year have definitely improved greatly. My knowledge of filming and overall video production have gone from absolutely awful to average, which is a great improvement. WACS News helps the school by informing the student body, as well as, the parents of students about what is going on in school life. WACS News helps the community in addition to the school. Videos are made about community events by members of multimedia production helping the entire Alden community to be up to date with events that are taking place. My overall experience in this class was good. I got the opportunity to make relationships with people I normally wouldn’t come in contact with in normal school life. In conclusion, WACS News helped me to realize that although things may be uncomfortable you have to push through it and the outcome with likely be positive and will lead to you growing as a person.