Students produce TV news magazine show about Bethel

It’s called "Bethel Prime Time" and it’s a 30-minute TV news magazine show that showcases different aspects of life at Bethel. The show was produced by students in a class taught by Director of Student Media Tim Ceravolo.

"We worked on it during the whole semester, taking time to shoot, sequence and edit the footage as well as write the copy and do the voice overs," said senior Reed Lyons. Ceravolo said students were able to pick their stories and do all of the work involved although he did end up editing most of the tape and helped with the producing.

"Tim taught us the ins and outs of a newsroom and we just put the theories into practice in our own stories," said Lyons.

The main goal was to put together an actual show which is now on the Bethel Web site under "student media."

"We learned a lot during the class," said Lyons. "(We) also visited WSBT during a news program to see what the pros do."

Ceravolo said the class spent a lot of time watching "60 Minutes" and was able to learn the basic terminology of TV news. Along with that they learned the basic tools needed to use a video camera before they got to go out and shoot their own stories.

"It’s not brain surgery by any means, but there are some techniques and some basic rules that anyone who is serious about shooting quality video should know," said Ceravolo.

The show features stories on chapel, community service involvement, the long boarding craze, the Oakwood Manges football game, the Weikamp wackos and the overnight cleaning Staff and its prayers for the campus. There are commercial breaks which promote the Bethel Pilot Radio, The Beacon and The Helm.

"It was a really hands-on experience and we learned a lot about the process as well as the amount of work it takes to produce a news show," said Lyons. "I recommend taking it when it is offered again."

Ceravolo enjoyed working on this product almost as much as the students did.

"When I worked in television news I always enjoyed the creative aspect of video storytelling," said Ceravolo. "This was the most fun I’ve had teaching at Bethel. I hope we can make this a regular class. Even students who don’t care about broadcast journalism can have fun and learn some basic principles about shooting video and putting together compelling video stories."