Television Media Broadcasting and Communications

Television Broadcast Production: 1 Credit. Year/Grades 11 or 12.  This is a Fine Arts elective.  

This course provides instruction and field experience in all areas of television broadcast production, including camera and recording formats, video editing, and live event production.  In order to receive full benefit of this course, the student should be available during and after school hours to be able to participate in live broadcast capture.  This is NOT a requirement; however, the student will not gain knowledge of all course content without experiencing live video capture situations.  Production projects are aired on Fairmont Cable Channel 12.

John Duderstadt Jr. is from Fairmont, MN. He graduated from FHS in 2004 then attended Jackson Technical College. He is the sole proprietor of Duderstadt Video Products and sub contracts with Gemini Studios. He films for the City of Fairmont and The Fairmont Area School District, as well as teaches the Television Media Broadcasting and Communications class.

Bruce Abitz of Gemini Studios has taught the class for several years and is turned over the duties to John in 2015-2016. The first half of the year is focussed on learning how to set up and use the equipment. Students will film school sporting events and broadcast them live-stream on the web. Students will learn to work under highly stressful real life situations and problem solve.

The second half of the year transitions to more studio work, filming and editing using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere and other programs to create a finished product.

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Watch the Student Connections Video Production to learn about the details that go into making a good video production. Click on the photo at left to go to the 1/2 hour television show. 

Martin Luther High School is the ONLY high school in the area that offers Television Media Broadcasting and Communications. 

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            Media Class Films MSU Hockey

                                                                          By Bekah Rusert, 2015


On Saturday, December 7th, the Media students had a unique opportunity to travel to Mankato and join the Bethany Lutheran College Communications students as they filmed the MSU Mavericks in their home game against the Northern Michigan Wildcats. The students left Gemini Studios in Fairmont at three o’clock on Saturday, splitting into two cars for the trip up to Mankato. On the way, each car was given an assignment to complete before reaching the MSU campus. One car (Neil Osborn, Brian Nemanic, and Tyler Wiederhoeft) was assigned the job to write an opener for the piece the students would be doing and the other car (Kristi Oberdieck, Amanda Whitehead, and I) was given the job of writing the closer. Both cars completed their tasks before arrival and were able to film their opener and closer on site at MSU. After touring the arena and viewing all of Bethany’s professional equipment, the media students broke up into their two separate groups in order to film shots to put into their piece. 

Although we had to use the cameras we brought from Gemini and not the highly-professional cameras that the Bethany team used, we were still given many amazing opportunities to film beside them. The group I was in was even allowed into the room to tape the MSU coach’s pre-game interview alongside Bethany’s team. When warm-ups started, we were able to get shots of the team as they hit the ice for the first time that night. As the game started and we found we had enough film of the actual game, more and more outstanding opportunities arose. We were able to film the Bethany team as they interviewed the players in between periods as well as be back by the locker rooms as the teams came back out onto the ice. Watching the MSU huddle break isn’t something very many people see, but we were able to not only see it, but to get it on tape as well. 

We weren’t only out in the arena getting film; we were also allowed to sit in Bethany’s professional broadcasting trailer and watch them film, direct, and produce the show live. The trailer is composed of three compartments. In one compartment, the coloring and brightness is controlled and the commercial playlists are created and played. In another compartment, the sound is controlled, and in the third compartment, several broadcasters sit behind their computers, while the three directors sit up front controlling which shots are shown at what time. The broadcasters were in charge of pulling up the shots from the different angles and getting them ready for replays and reviews. It was amazing to see how many people it takes to produce a show as it’s happening.

After the game, we helped the Bethany crew take down their stuff and pack it up. After that, we were all allowed out on the ice for a while before filming a “Merry Christmas” shot with Bethany’s crew. The whole day was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it was all thanks to our media teachers, Bruce Abitz and David McKnight, that we were able to go. We thank them as well as the Bethany Lutheran College Communications Team for this amazing experience.

Although this was one remarkably fun thing we got to do, there are many more fun opportunities we get in media. Even if you’re not that confident in your ability to run a camera or edit a show on the computer, media is still a wonderful opportunity to not only learn how to do those things, but also to learn valuable leadership skills that you can take into any career you go into the rest of your life. Both of the teachers work with you to make sure you learn the basics of working both behind and in front of the camera as well as help you learn the steps of the editing process. Along the way, they incorporate valuable life lessons that are important for everyone to learn, not just those going into a specific field. Even if you’re not 100% sure about your decision to join media, I advise you to go ahead and give it a try. I can guarantee that you’ll love it!