Montessori Academy students become video production assistants for a day

It’s not every day that students are on camera reporting live from a teleprompter and shouting, “Action!” But third- and fifth-graders from Montessori Academy at Onesimo Hernandez got a chance to do just that as they tried their hand at video, audio, and post-production at the Dallas Schools Television (DSTV) studio. 

Getting a sense of what it’s like to be in a real broadcast studio, the students were also taught how to use state-of-the-art, Canon EOS C500 cameras similar to the ones used to record Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Age of Ultron." Each area of the DSTV studio was split into rotation stations where kids could step into a professional photography studio or an audio control room with a Mackie audio mixer, and dabble with post-production/editing equipment.

“When we were editing, it was hard because you have to see everything and there was a bunch of stuff on the screen,” said Maria Villareal, a Montessori Academy third grader. “I thought it was easy when we looked at the videos, but it seems really hard because that camera has a lot of buttons.”

Dallas Schools Television/Office of Broadcast amp; Programming is under the Communication Services umbrella at Dallas ISD. DSTV produces videos to promote, inform and educate the public about district students, team members, teachers, departments, schools and programs.