Most freshmen interested in learning the ins and outs of video production take the Beginning Television Production Class at Arcadia High School (AHS), which is an introductory course that exposes students to the basic concepts of video and media production. The classwork is divided up into two semesters and is open to all freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

However, AHS freshman Reena Hsieh finds herself in the Intermediate Video Production class at AHS, taught by Mr. Sunez. The class is UC Approved, and is also known as “The Movie Class!” In this class, students build on concepts learned from the Beginning Television Production class, like camera operation, pre-production, and production planning. Students also become familiar with software like Adobe Creative Cloud and work on projects together. As the AHS Curriculum Guide states, “this course is highly recommended for students looking to join Advanced Video Production: Apache News,” which is exactly what Hsieh plans to do.

“I have always been interested in content creation and video editing ever since I was young, and I kind of just always liked it,” Hsieh stated. “I don’t really know how it started, but this has always been a passion of mine. I’m happy that I get to be in a class where I can express my passions and creativity through content creation.”

So far, this past year, students of the intermediate video production class have worked on a variety of projects, including Long Takes (and editing them!), Podcasts, and working on a horror film! 

“For my podcast, our group did it on the AHS water polo team!” Hsieh said. “It was really fun because I got to interview the coaches and teammates, and I learned a lot about water polo and how it works. Interviewing the team and learning about the team atmosphere and hearing their stories was also fun.”

As for the class itself, Hsieh loves it! Her class size is pretty small, so it allows for close-knit relationships where students have the opportunity to further their knowledge of how to work collaboratively. Hsieh enjoys getting to work with all different types of people, even in such a small setting. Even though some people may have a different goal, where some people are working on the filming while others are tasked with writing the script, the combination of everyone’s efforts is what makes working together so worth it. 

“I met a lot of friends in the class; the class is like a second family because everyone is super close to each other, and we’ve all worked together before,” Hsieh said. “Everyone feels like they’re a part of something, and creating cool content is fun. I learned that I need to learn from my mistakes, and having failures that I’ve had to get past, has helped me grow as a person and cinematographer.” 

As for her plans next year, Hsieh is hoping to make it on to Apache News (APN) and looking forward to new experiences since the class is different from video production. 

“I hope that APN will help me pursue my passions in video production and further advance my videoing skills!” Hsieh exclaimed.

For any students with a passion for content creation, cinematography, or any type of video production, go for it and take a class from AHS’ video production program! This is exactly what Hsieh did, as she had a passion for reaching her audience through making videos, and she continued with it! Hopefully, in the upcoming year she will be able to further her skills in cinematography and video production.