The NNPS-TV video production team recently made a new promo for the school system - one for which they recorded nearly 50 students at almost 25 different schools to show the variety of reasons students need and want to be at school.

In the video, students encourage fellow students to be at school every day, by saying a line about what they do at school that they wouldn't want to miss. About 25 different clips of students speaking a line in a school setting make up the video.

The production team, made up of Station Manager Jim Anklam, Producer Nik Long, and Production Specialist Aaron Moore, was asked to produce a video to use for a larger promotion encouraging attendance - that every day matters.

Since sharing more student voices is a priority of current NNPS leadership, the video production team started by asking themselves, “what would students say about attendance?”

"Most students wouldn’t talk about getting good grades, or attend because it’s the law," said Long. "They would talk about all the cool stuff that makes school fun for them."

The team listed things kids would like, but then weighed them against things adults like, and chose the lines and the scenes according to what both would agree on. For example, for a lot of students and parents, getting a good lunch is a reason to go to school. Special programs and music and the arts are also on the list.

Although they contemplated just using two or three student voiceovers and lots of b-roll, the team saw that a more compelling story could be told using many more students and ideas. The NNPS Attendance team definitely preferred the latter despite it requiring more production time.

The production team worked together on the script and the shot list. For the best visuals, they started with magnet programs that have unique settings like a marine science lab or medical equipment. They knew Menchville JROTC members would be great for the video, as well as students at Denbigh's aircraft lab, and Riverside Elementary's drum line.

Once they identified specific schools for specific shots, they fleshed it out with a different school for each of the other scenes. They chose Hilton Elementary for the closing shot because they felt it was the most traditional-looking school with a classic exterior.

The team emailed schools to choose students to participate and set up a time to record.

All of the shots were planned ahead of time, aside from one at Christopher Newport University recorded during the NNPS Senior Rally. 

Long was there getting footage of the event, and looked for a student he'd recorded before to to use in the new video. Not finding him, he found a student who had been on swim team with his daughter, and she and her friend did the line quickly.

"The audio isn’t the best because of how loud it was," he said, "but it was ... a very authentic clip, one of my favorites in the video."

He was also able to economize at Sedgefield Elementary, when he was recording a voiceover with a student for "This Just In," the weekly news show, and after that the student did the line for the attendance video in the colorful cafeteria.

Moore also was able to get some of the shots for the video done while out on other shoots, which was helpful in making their deadline.

As the pieces of the video were completed, the team could see where there were gaps and what they would need to fill them, and at that time, they requested more specific "student-actors" or added lines to make the video flow better.

The team recorded almost every scene with two different students in order to give themselves more flexibility in post-production. That way they could be sure to have enough diversity so the video would look balanced once all the scenes were put together.

In the end, the NNPS-TV team recorded students from every middle and high school, and 11 elementary schools, for a total of  24 different schools.

Moore described it as "one of the more involved videos we've done."

Producing the video was a big challenge for the team, because of the many locations; the lighting and sound in the settings they wanted; matching up the schools, student-actors, and the line for them to deliver; and working with children during school time.

At Gildersleeve Middle School, Long and Anklam had to stage class change in the hallway so it would be quiet and controlled. They used an entire class, breaking them into smaller groups, and giving each group a starting point to walk in the hallway or up or down the stairs.  They were not allowed to talk and had to pantomime to each other as they "changed classes."

"We did six takes with two different speakers," Long said, "and the whole class cheered when we wrapped that scene."

"It was a lot of fun, and the class was so helpful and energetic to play a role in a four-second shot," he said.

The team met some "really kind and talented students" and they enjoyed interacting with the young people and their teachers.

Despite all the planning that went into filming each segment of the video, they did have to improvise one part, after accidentally telling a Woodside student the wrong line to say. They had been focused on staging the scene, which had multiple student actors, and getting the actors’ movements right. After the shoot, they realized the error. The solution was to create a new line to precede that scene to make the video flow properly and make sense.  Another school was added, showcasing an elementary music class, so it ended up making the video better.

Moore edited the video, adding video segments into the timeline as they were done, then rearranging if necessary as he completed the final product.

Because in most cases they had two versions of each shot, they were able to use the extras to create additional, shorter videos with slightly different angles, like focusing on elementary, middle, or high school settings; or science; or arts. These shorter videos are around 30-40 seconds long.

Long said the video project came together in about two weeks once it got rolling, which surprised him.

"I’m still shocked that we finished," he said shortly after the video went live.

Anklam credited Long for being "the creative force behind the project."

"As the producer," he said, "he successfully communicated his vision for the project and collaborated throughout all of it."

"He also scheduled everything," Anklam continued, "which was a major task."

The video, which is a little under two minutes long, is being used in the division-wide "Every Day Counts" campaign, and also aired as part of "This Just In" at the end of March.