Lauren Doherty, Story Editor
Despite E-learning and the current uncertainty due to COVID-19, NCTV students are continuing to release their morning announcements, which are now filmed from home. The announcements that are typically aired live at 9:15 on Friday mornings are now posted on Youtube and sent via email to the school community.
Senior Harvey Duplock, one of the popular hosts of TMA, says that teamwork has been very important in ensuring that the announcements are ready each week. “People are dropping off equipment, helping people with stories, and asking to do other people’s work to reduce stress,” said Harvey. “We have always been a team but during the year people stuck to more defined roles, now everyone is helping out where they can.”
Senior Luci Savini further emphasized the importance of working together. “NCTV has really worked as a team through these tough times mainly by communication,” said Luci. “With the type of content that we produce in the class, as a station, communication is key.”
The process of creating the announcements still retains similarities to how the students did so at school, including developing and editing a script. However, since the announcements are no longer live, now recorded every Thursday, due dates have been pushed up to ensure the broadcast is completed in time.
Luci typically contributes to the broadcast through the production process. “Throughout the week I will help the producer coordinate between reporters, as well as helps with any problems related to the content of the morning announcements,” said Luci. “By the end of the week the producers and I will have made edits to the script, and all the anchors will film and send their videos to me, which I compile and piece together to what you see on your screen.”
Junior Ian Nicholas is a sports reporter for NCTV. His job has been particularly challenging due to the postponement of spring sports. “I’ve started with honoring our winter athletes through our countdown of the top winter sports games we covered this season,” said Ian. “I touched on Tyler Sung’s legendary career one last time, I’ve talked about the virus’s impact on the future of the spring sports schedule, and I‘ve had the chance to talk about some of our rams in college who will continue their athletic careers into the pros.”
Junior Alex Kurz says that TV broadcasting teacher, Roman Cebulski, has been a key player in the success of TMA. “Mr. C has been great in working to keep us all organized and on top of things while completing these at-home announcements,” Alex said. “He has been encouraging each of us to brainstorm and come up with creative ways to make sure each broadcast goes as smoothly as possible.”
Ian described Mr. Cebulski as the driving force behind NCTV. “It might mean more work for us, but the quality of our work, through his guidance, clearly shows in the announcements we continue to produce,” said Ian. “Mr. C meets with the station managers, with our separate class groups, he emails us with ideas and suggestions, and he puts us in a great position to succeed moving forward.”
Filming TMA from home can be an extremely time-consuming task. “Filming will take anywhere from one and a half to three hours, with the final product being around only ten minutes, depending on the story length, how well I perform, or if I have technology issues,” said Harvey. He then spends about another two hours editing before TMA can be posted online.
While the time commitment can be great, the passion of NCTV students is what drives them to create such quality broadcasts. “NCTV has fueled my passion to succeed, create, perform and grow as a human,” said Harvey. “The studio is practically my second home and the class is my second family.”
For some NCTV students, their passion for the class extends outward from high-school, launching them to college majors and eventual careers. “NCTV has changed my life just knowing that we are providing kids with a career path that they focus on and they realize it is something they want to do at such an early age,” said Mr. Cebulski.
Such was the case with Harvey, who will be attending the University of Miami next year, notably ranked as the fourth-best broadcast journalism program in the country according to niche.com. “I have never been happier before in my life and I owe that all to NCTV,” said Harvey. “NCTV saved my life, but also created my future.”
Despite the limitations, the closure of school has brought to NCTV, new opportunities for new segments and stories have arisen. “Although this process is more challenging and stressful in some aspects, I think it’s given us a great experience we would have not gotten otherwise,” said Luci.
“Students are putting together longer broadcasts than they do when we are at school, and it’s actually quality content that is interesting and entertaining,” said Mr. Cebulski. “It’s making them look at different segments and new ways to approach a story.
As for what is coming up for NCTV, it is relatively uncertain as they adjust their plan knowing that we will not be returning to school for the 2019-2020 school year. “Now, we are just trying to survive, put out a broadcast every week that is entertaining and informational,” said Mr. Cebulski. “ We are trying to add more segments as we have greater flexibility to try new things out, but podcasts have really taken off.”
As for podcasts, Ian, along with Seniors Cortland Parrott and Dylan Pescatore have been uploading weekly sports podcasts on Youtube. Their sports podcasts, “Beyond the Whistle” and “Rams Revealed“, discuss various high school and professional sports, and occasionally features special guests, such as professional broadcasters.
With NCHS remaining closed for the rest of the school year, NCTV seniors will no longer have the typical senior broadcast, where they bid farewell to the TV program. “I really wanted to finish the year in that studio so I could cement my legacy in NCTV,” said Harvey.
Ian worked behind the scenes on last year’s senior broadcast. “It’s hectic, it’s crazy, the seniors almost dragged through the whole thing, but they loved every second of it, in the end, knowing it was their last one,” said Ian.
TMA and NCTV have been a consistently reliable news source throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They pride themselves on their ability to unite people during these uncertain times. “The announcements are bringing New Canaan together, watching and sharing a video for 10-20 minutes every week, it’s a powerful thing we can do,” said Ian. “A high school television station, producing the amount of content we do on a weekly basis? It’s insane what luxuries we are provided by NCHS, Mr. C, and the community.”
