Every year when Gators choose their schedules for the upcoming year they are met with a diverse set of options for electives. Among them this year was Beginning Video Production located in Founders Hall 229, available to grades 9 through 12.
This class has been offered at Xavier for approximately three school years now and has been taught by multiple teachers including Sanford Worth, Ben Vanderput, Eric Lambert and now Rylee Weaver.
Weaver is one of Xavier’s most recent additions, having begun teaching this class at the beginning of February. Prior to this he worked various jobs in the video-teach production field for the past 13 years.
Beginning Video Production focuses on a variety of film techniques such as types of lighting, audio dubbing and editing. According to senior Katherine Lee, each project assigned corresponds to whatever technique the class is focused on at that time.
Students currently in this class most recently completed their audio dubbing assignment. Senior Chineze Gray said, “We were given a short clip of a film, and had to take away the original audio. We then used our voices and new sound effects to go along with the clip.”
In this class, students take on the role of actor, director and producer – acting in each other’s films while developing ideas for their own, and then editing the final product which is shown to the rest of the class.
When making their films students are given creative freedom regarding subject matter, however there are still requirements each video must meet. “For example, when learning about different types of lighting our videos had to have three different cinematic lighting styles but could be about anything,” Lee said.
The freedom given to students in this class is something that Weaver prides himself on. He believes that everyone is creative in her own unique ways. “You may not be able to paint a masterpiece or sing a beautiful song but there are different forms of art out there,” he says.
Weaver notes that he feels this realization can be incredibly freeing for students and is something that they can then learn to apply to other aspects of their lives and times at Xavier.
A high point for Lee in this class came during the final project of the semester where students were tasked with creating a short film. The class utilized different spots around Xavier’s campus to add variety to their scenes, some even included elaborate costume changes. Lee’s group created a thriller, telling the story of an escaped prisoner seeking revenge.
“I was in a group with people I had not worked with all year so it was really interesting hearing different ideas and seeing how we all put them together,” Lee added.
Gray noted that she enjoys learning about the different techniques and effects used in her favorite movies and being able to recreate them in her own projects.
“You don’t necessarily have to be great with filming or technology to be successful in this class. It just comes down to how much you are willing to learn and practice,” Gray said.
